A Gleeful Tail
by Graciegleek
Summary: Rachel travels to Australia on a spring break trip and meets Cleo, Rikki, Emma, and Bella. She falls into the wrong place at the wrong time and is suddenly whisked into world of magic and secrets. DISCONTINUED FIC.
1. It All Begins

**A/N: This is my first story guys, so be nice!**

**This is a prologue, so the other chapters will be longer!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or H2o though I wish I did!**

**Finn POV**

I was sitting in class when suddenly the bell rang for lunch. _Yes! _I thought as I rushed to my locker to put my books away. I slammed the door and tried to turn away when I realized my jacket was caught. I knew that if I tried to pull it out, I would look like a complete idiot, so I decided to wait until everyone was at lunch to free myself. When I saw the last of the class turn the corner, I frantically tried to pull at my jacket. I stopped short when I heard someone coming, quickly turning away to act like I totally had a reason to be standing there.

Suddenly, Rachel tore around the corner, covered in slushy. She looked panicked, but when she saw me, her features changed into a mix of pain and sadness. Snapping out of it, she turned into the next hallway. I sighed, finally managing to take back my jacket. I walked into the cafeteria, where everyone was talking about the random spring blizzard we had gotten over Spring Break. When I got to the Glee table, the group stopped talking.

"Sit somewhere else, Finn. We don't want to speak with you," Artie told me from the end of the table. I sighed again and turned around, looking for somewhere else to sit. I could hear some of their resumed conversation as I walked away.

"Has anyone seen Rachel since homeroom?"

"Poor diva. Finn's such an idiot."

"No one deserves to be cheated on."

Kurt was right. I _was _an idiot.

**Rachel POV**

*Flashback*

The bell rang and I was walking down the hall to go to lunch. I was thinking about everything that had happened today when I turned to see the entire hockey team, standing at the ready with none other than… Slushies. Great. I looked at them with disgust when a panicked thought crossed my mind. Slushies were made of ice. Ice was made of…

SPLASH! My entire sweater was covered in the frozen drink. I stood still for a second before running down the hall. I saw Finn looking at me with a sad expression; for a second, I forgot everything and stared back. However, my emergency soon came back to mind, so I turned on my heel, ran into the nearest bathroom, and locked the door. I started to feel a tingling in my legs, and the last thing I knew I was lying on the floor while my head throbbed staring at…

My tail.

*End of flashback*

It was all Noah's fault.

I was going to spend my spring break with Finn, watching bootleg Broadway shows and starting my summer shopping. It was going to be normal.

Then Noah had an idea.

He showed me a flyer for our Temple's spring trip to Australia. We would be staying with a host family for a week, go to the beach, blahblahblah. I told him no multiple times. Why was our temple even going to Australia anyway? I had thought I had been quite clear with him, so imagine my surprise when I came home from dance to see him standing in my kitchen, with both my fathers looking at brochures.

"Oh, Rachel, what a great idea! You could learn so much… culture! Plus, we know Noah would take good care of you. Wouldn't you, Noah?" My Daddy gushed.

"Of course I would, Mr. Berry," Puck said, smiling at me.

So it was decided. I was going to Australia.


	2. What's His Angle?

Rachel's POV

I couldn't understand.

Why did Puck want me to go to Australia so badly? We were great friends, and had a lot more in common than we had initially thought. But why did he not take NO for an answer?

Lauren's POV

Let us get this straight: I am the most awesome person in the world. So I wasn't surprised when Rachel came up to me asking for help. I was surprised, though, when I found out she wanted me to spy on Puck. She had only told me that he was being persistent, and even though it was vague, I still took up her deal- for a small fee.

I set up my cameras in the locker room (yeah, yeah, I know it's illegal, but since when has that stopped me?) Rachel and I sat behind my laptop in the choir room, waiting for football practice to end. Puck came straight to his locker, talking to Rory. "Dude, I know she's taken, but hey, I like a challenge, don't I?" Puck snickered, taking off his shirt.

Rory had wide eyes, completely embodying his childlike innocence. "She won't go for it. If you try anything, Finn is going to hear about-"

"You listen to me, Punk" Puck interrupted. "You will not say anything, at all, you hear me?" he said in a low voice.

"Oh-oh-okay…." Rory stammered as he backed away.

Rachel shut my laptop, seeing as the guys were starting to take off their pants, and stood up very quickly. "Thank you so much for you services, Lauren, I need to leave." She exclaimed as she walked out the door.

Well.

This was going to be interesting.

Rachel's POV

What the heck? Noah wanted to date me (okay, "date" probably isn't the right word, but still?) What was his angle. I thought we were only friends?

Spring break was only three days away. What was I going to do to get him to leave me alone?

I contemplated my options as I walked to math and practically walked straight into a guy in a letterman jacket. I looked up, completely embarrassed, only to realize that it was Puck.

"Hey, my Hot Little Jewish-American Princess, what's going on?" He said, putting an arm around my shoulders. I tried to pull away, but seeing as he was about a good foot taller than me and had a lot more muscle mass, I was kind of tethered to him as we walked down the hall. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Noah, I am NOT going to date you!" I said quietly with force.

"Who said anything about dating! You're like a little sister to me! He said, looking at me with shocked eyes. Boy, was he a good actor. If I hadn't known better, I would have believed him. But, since Lauren's little locker room stunt was illegal, I had to play it cool.

"Okay, you were just being a little bit overly friendly. See you at lunch." I said as stormed off.

This was going to be a long week.


	3. Plane Ride

**A/N: Here it is! Chapter four of A Gleeful Tail! But first, two things: 1) I wanted to explain the guess my age thing. I realize this might have sounded creepy, but I have an explanation. I read this study that people make assumptions automatically when they read a person's writing. (Ex. favorite color, age, what they look like, favorite animal, ex.) So I just wanted to check it out for myself. And 2) No, this is NOT a Puckleberry story. I do like the idea of Puckleberry, I ****ADORE ****Finchel. Did you guys see the preview for next week? I can't wait! So here goes the chapter!**

Rachel's POV

I sat at the edge of my bed, so tired I felt like dying. The last few hours had been terrible. When Finn dropped me off after school, he looked like he wasn't going to miss me at all. Then I spent five hours packing, since we were leaving tomorrow early. I tried to scale down my packing as much as I could, and ended up whittling it down to only two checked bags and one carry on. Hey, I needed to bring my sheet music to practice for Nationals; it was only two months away. I decided to get to bed; Noah was coming to get me at six thirty to get to the airport to meet the group of students going to Australia. He just wouldn't leave me alone. It was starting to get really annoying; almost as annoying as the fact that the Sydney Opera House was way too far to go to from where we were staying.

No One's POV

Puck, Sam, and Mike were shooting hoops in Mike's driveway. It was starting to get late, Puck noted. He needed to get home soon and start packing. Probably just a couple t-shirts and some socks; that way he could save the couple bucks the temple gave him for a checked bag.

"So dude, heard you were going to Australia with Rachel," Sam said as he made a perfect layup.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Puck asked, rebounding the ball and passing it to Mike.

"What does Finn think about it?" Mike smirked, missing a three point shot.

"I dunno, he actually seemed happy about it. I swear; Rachel deserves better." Shoot, did he really say that out loud?

Sam and Mike stared at him.

"I-I mean…um…like, she, uh…." Puck stammered, avoiding their eyes. "I need to go and pack!" he exclaimed suddenly as he pounded the ball against the pavement and ran to his car, speeding away.

What he didn't say was that he thought he was in love with her.

Rachel's POV

I was up at five AM. After a vigorous workout on the elliptical and breakfast with my dads, Isent a goodbye text to Finn and took one last look around my room. It was only a week that I was going to be gone, but it I had a feeling it was going to be a LONG trip.

Suddenly a car horn rang out three times, snapping me out of my trance. I looked out of my window to see Puck waving at me from his truck. I ran downstairs, kissed my dads goodbye, and pulled my floral suitcases out the door, balancing my carryon on one arm and my purse on the other. The wheel of one of my bags got caught on the door frame, and I had to stop and tug on it harshly before I could get to Noah's truck.

Puck's POV

I got up at six twenty three. My shorts and t-shirt didn't smell too much, so I walked out of my bedroom, grabbing my bag and car keys. My mother caught me on my way out the door and made me change before she kissed me on the cheek and told me to have a good time. I pulled up to Rachel's house early, which is a rarity for me. I pushed the horn and waved up at her bedroom window, knowing she would see me. I waited for her to come downstairs impatiently, and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her coming out the front door. The girl had two huge suitcases and a little one, and I almost laughed out loud when one of them got caught on the door frame. I got out of my truck and helped her out, taking her suitcases with ease and dropped them in the back, clasping the tarp over top of them. I opened her door for her before getting in on the other side and starting the car. We drove for about five minutes before she spoke up.

"Hi," she said with a slightly angry, slightly confused look on her face.

"Hey," I retorted with a smile.

"Noah, why did you want me to go on this trip?" She spoke quietly without looking me in the eyes.

"It's Puck, and I thought it would be fun," I managed, staring at the road.

"That's not true, is it?" She accused, looking at me suspiciously.

Yes, it's true," I replied, trying not to look guilty.

Neither of us spoke for the rest of the drive. We pulled up to the airport and parked in lot E, sticking the parking pass provided by my temple on the windshield. I grabbed all our luggage and pulled it into the entrance, where we spent half an hour in security. A ton of TSA people gave me dirty looks; I must be on their list of suspicious people. We met the people from our temple in the terminal, to be met by a twenty-something whose name tag identified her as Aliza.

"Hi! You're here for the Australia trip, aren't you! I'm Aliza, you must be Rachel and you must be Noah. Come sit down!" She said in an extremely fast, high pitched voice.

We followed her over to a group of kids about my age surrounded by luggage. There was about twelve of them, most of which I recognized. I noticed Jacob Ben Israel staring at Rachel. Aliza suddenly started talking.

"Alright, so everyone is here! Great! You're all wearing nametags, so we don't have to do introductions, so I'll get right to it! The information packets that you got when you signed up went over the rules, so all I have to do is assign everything. You will be saying with host families who have kids your age, and you will each be assigned a buddy to stick with and hang out with the entire time. So here it goes…" Aliza started to read off a list.

"Jacob, you will be staying with the Dove Family, Aaron, you will be staying with the Fusin Family…" she read of a couple more people before finishing the list.

"Rachel, you will be staying with the Setori Family, and Noah, you will be staying with the McCartney Family. Now, you need a buddy! Jacob, you will be with Eva,… And finally, Rachel will be with Noah."

I looked over at Rachel only to see her frowning at me.

"If you're about to accuse me of rigging the pairs, than yes, yes I did." I told her with a smirk.

"Noah! How di-"

"Don't ask how. I just thought it would be better than being stuck with a random person." I interrupted.

That shut her up.

Rachel's POV

We boarded the plane to find that the temple had managed to get us all seats together in pairs of two down the left side of the plane. Eva and I sat together at the front of Coach, so we could have more leg room. I decided to paint my nails before takeoff, so I stuck my bag under my seat in the little cubby and pulled down the tray from the side of my seat. Eva stuck in her ear buds as we sat, waiting for takeoff. I heard Eva speak with someone behind her seat, but the tray in front of me kept me from seeing who it was. Next thing I knew, Puck was sitting next to me and smiling. Uggh. This was going to be a long ride.

**A/N: So there you have it! Chapter four (I know it's really chapter three, but I want to keep the chapter numbers lined up with the website)! I know it's long, hopefully that makes up for the fact that I haven't updated in forever (like three days.) More to come!**


	4. Cleo, Meet Rachel

**A/N: Hi guys! Sorry about the wait for an update. School has been CRAZY! Also, I've pretty much been lazy, reading fan fiction instead of writing it. Here goes chapter five!**

Rachel's POV

"Hello passengers! This is your captain speaking. It is a hot 30 degrees Celsius on the Gold Coast. We will be arriving at Gold Coast Airport in about half an hour! Have a nice trip!"

I woke up looking at the wall between Coach and Business class seating. I (thankfully) avoided a panic attack before realizing where I was. I also realized that my head was on Noah's shoulder and he was grinning at me. I sat up quickly and straightened my shirt, then looked out the window. I could tell that it was really early in the morning.

"How'd you sleep?" Noah asked me. I ignored him.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked quietly.

"Oh, maybe, six and a half hours?" he smirked.

"What time is it?" I exclaimed quickly.

"Like, three-thirty, Australia time, chill, Berry! This plane trip takes, like, a day, remember?"

Oh, yes, how could I forget?

We sat in silence until the plane landed. Noah tried to take my carry on, but I argued that it only weighed five pounds and that I could handle it. Aliza told us that we wouldn't need to contact each other at all during the week, except our buddies, and to shoot her an e-mail every night just so she could make sure we were safe.

"Other than that, just have fun and be safe!" She exclaimed.

I sat down in the terminal to think things over. I was stuck the whole week with Puck, and I needed to find a way to avoid him. Suddenly I remembered that our host families would be waiting outside for us. I got up, found my bags (Noah grabbed them before I could tell him not to), and headed out of the terminal to the front doors. When I emerged from the building, I immediately saw a big sign that said BERRY in big letters, being held up by a girl with curly brown hair- standing next to a blond guy with a sign that read PUCKERMAN in the same large handwriting. It figured that they'd be friends.

Cleo's POV (A few hours earlier)

Ugggh. Summer vacation was almost over. Sure the summer had been great; my friends Rikki, Bella, Emma and I went swimming all the time, and my boyfriend Lewis and I had a strong, loving relationship. But I still didn't want to go back to school.

"Cleo, can you come down here please?" my Dad called for me up the stairs.

"Kay, Dad, coming." I finished changing into my pajamas and came downstairs.

"Cleo, come sit, I need to tell you something," he said when I reached the living room. I sat down cautiously.

"Cleo, I've been noticing you are a little more distant, so I thought a new experience would benefit you a lot, and I looked around for a lot of opportunities, so… an American girl is coming here to stay for her Spring Break!" he exclaimed nervously.

"What! When! Why didn't I know about this?" I yelled. This was going to ruin the last week of vacation!

"Ummm, well, she's kind of coming at four AM tomorrow, because the flights from America take twenty hours, so I'm going to need you to pick her up at the airport. Lewis's family is also hosting a student, so you two can go together!" Dad said quickly.

"Four AM? Are you crazy?" I took a deep breath. "Do you know anything about her?"

My dad grabbed a paper from his desk. "Well, it says here that her name is Rachel Berry, from Lima, Ohio in the United States. Here's the paper if you want to read more." He handed me the paper and I went to my bedroom. Under the faint glow of my reading lamp, I read that she was the captain of her school's glee club, along with her boyfriend Finn. Apparently they were going to glee club nationals, and she was "destined for Broadway greatness."

Well. This was going to be fun.

*The Next Day*

I stood next to Lewis outside of the airport. It was WAY too early to get up. I held up a sign that said Berry on it, and Lewis held up one that said Puckerman on it. I had made them for us in the car. Lewis told me that the kid he was hosting was named Noah, and was a football player, along with being in the glee club with Rachel at their school. So they knew each other! Maybe this would be fun!

"Um, excuse me?" a short girl with straight brown hair tapped me on the shoulder. She spoke with an obviously American accent.

"Judging by the fact that you are carrying a sign with my name on it, I'm going to guess that your last name is Setori?" she questioned, sounding very jetlagged.

"Uh, yeah, I'm Cleo, and this is Lewis," I responded, shaking her hand.

"I'm Rachel Berry, but you probably already know that." she said, glancing with distaste at Lewis's sign.

"We can go to my house in a second, Lewis is just waiting for-"

"Noah Puckerman, but I go by Puck." A tall, dark, muscular boy with a mohawk cut me off, dropping two LARGE pink bags and one gym bag in the trunk of Lewis's car.

"Puck, as in a Hockey puck?" Lewis asked, a smile forming on his face.

"As in my last name, genius," Puck smirked.

"Well, let's get going, we can talk more in the car," I opened the passenger seat door and got in. I noticed Puck open the backseat door for Rachel, and she got in without a glance in his direction. They defiantly knew each other.

"So, you two know each other?" I asked awkwardly once we were on the highway.

"Uh, yeah, we're both in glee club together," Rachel cleared her throat and stared out the window.

Rachel's POV

I stared out the window at the tall sea grass and dunes obstructing my view of the ocean. Sure, I had seen the ocean a couple times visiting my grandparents on the Jersey Shore, but never an actually pretty, quiet, serine beach like this one. Wow.

Lewis dropped Cleo and I off at her house, before taking Noah to his place. Her house was big, with lots of windows, and the back yard even went right up to a canal! She opened the door, and led me to her living room, where a stout man with thinning hair sat reading a fishing magazine.

"Dad, Rachel's here," Cleo cleared her throat, and her dad looked up.

"Well, hello Rachel! It's so nice to meet you!" Mr. Setori stood up and shook my hand.

"You too! Thanks for having me stay here!" I said in my cheeriest voice.

"Okay, I'll take Cleo to her room now." Cleo went up a stairwell right by the door, motioning for me to follow her.

"This is my room," Cleo opened the door to a room with a big bed and a mural of a beach pained around one wall.

"And this is your room!" Cleo exclaimed as she opened the next door down the hall. The room was medium sized, with a king sized bed along one wall. The walls were a light shade of yellow, with a large window over a window seat looking out over the canal. A desk and a regular sized closet finished off the deal.

'This is great!" I exclaimed, walking over to the bed to sit down. Cleo went over and opened the window, letting in a cool morning breeze and making me remember that it was only six AM.

"You should sleep off the jet lag; we can talk more when you wake up." Cleo said as she walked out the door, closing it after herself.

After changing into my pajamas, I climbed under the soft sheets, drifting into a deep, comfortable sleep.

A/N: Sorry for the boringness(?) of this chapter, but I needed to set up all the logistics.

Reviews make me smile!


	5. New Friends

**A/N: Hey guys! I know, busy, excuse excuse, school, excuse excuse, anyway, I'm sorry for the wait. I decided to have Bella and Emma in this story, so I guess its Season 3 but Emma never left on her trip. By the way, I know this is more Rachel-centric, but seeing as this is really her story, I hope it's warranted. I swear, fan fiction is the only thing keeping me from going insane during this hiatus! Seven weeks? Seriously? Anyway, on to the story…**

Rachel POV

I woke up to a bright light in my eyes streaming in from the open window. The small clock on my bedside table read twelve twenty-four. I suddenly remembered getting here really early in the morning.

Uggh, jet lag does NOT agree with me.

I got up to start my morning routine. After a nice, long shower, I dried my hair and curled it with my curling iron. I pulled on my denim shorts and a light blue tank top. I walked down the hallway to see Cleo's door closed, even though the light was off. I trekked down the stairs to see Mr. Setori dozing with his fishing magazine in a large brown recliner. A note was left on the coffee table:

_Hey Rachel,_

_I've gone out with my friends. I feel really bad for leaving you alone, but we made plans since school's starting soon, so…yeah. I'll be back around one thirty; you can help yourself to anything in the kitchen. If you want to get out of the house, there's a map to this café, Rikki's, it serves juice and smoothies and stuff like that._

_See you soon!_

_-Cleo_

"Who are you? DAD, INTRUDER! INTRUDER!" A blond girl looking to be about thirteen stood behind the kitchen counter, looking at me with scared eyes. Mr. Setori opened his eyes and sat up quickly.

"Kim, oh, did I not tell you? This is Rachel; she's a student from America here on her Spring Break. She came this morning." He smiled at me apologetically. "Rachel, this is my younger daughter Kim. I'm sorry for her behavior; I guess I forgot to tell her you were coming."

Kim relaxed her defensive stance and smiled at me, even though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to rude. Dad, can a talk to you? Alone?" she grabbed her dad's arm and pulled him into the hall. I could hear them whisper-shouting, so I grabbed my phone and the directions and left the house.

Once out on the sidewalk, I followed the map to a little café down by the beach. There were a lot of kids who seemed to be about my age, so I assumed this was "the" hang out place for everyone. I pushed through the beads hanging from the doorway and into the building. Inside the place was crowded, with a large bar taking up all the space along one wall. I sat at a table by myself and picked up a menu, ordering a vegan Strawberry Splat. All the chatter around me turned into white noise as I stared out the window at the beach.

Then I saw them.

Noah and Cleo's friend Lewis were walking up the boardwalk towards the café. Quickly, took my drink, threw down some crumpled bills and left through the other entrance. I walked about half a mile down the beach before sitting down on a couple of rocks. _You can't avoid him forever, _I thought as I looked out over the glistening sea. It was so calming to watch the ocean move back and forth, back and forth… Anyway, I got up, took off my flip flops, and walked down the shoreline. Little waves were tickling my toes as I walked for a long time, eventually to where no one was anywhere in sight. I couldn't tell where I was, so I decided to climb up onto this giant rock to get my bearings. Once up there, I could hear…talking? I looked over the top of the rock to see…Cleo? This was getting weird. She was with some blond girl, laying on another rock. The rock was slanted, so I could only see their heads. I tried to get closer, but ended up falling off the rock with a loud "OW!"

"Rachel! Hey, we didn't see you there. What are you doing here?" Cleo asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," I replied.

"Bella and I were just talking. Could you, um, go back to the house, and, um, see if Dad has made lunch? He has off work today." Cleo shifted so I could only really see her eyes.

"Uh, sure thing," I said unenthusiastically.

"Great. We'll meet you there in around half an hour?" Cleo looked at Bella. She nodded.

"Okay, see you soon," I replied while walking away. According to the map I got on my phone, I had about two miles to walk. AND I had to pass the café to get there, no telling if Noah was there or not. Oh well, no avoiding it.

I managed to get back to the house without seeing anyone I knew. I came in the house to the sounds of soccer on the television. In the living room, Mr. Setori was sitting on the couch watching a game.

"Oh, Rachel, hello, did you have lunch? I have some grilled fish here if you want any." He sat up and gestured to a plate of fish on the kitchen counter.

"No thanks, Mr. Setori, I'm actually a vegan, but I'm not hungry anyway." I started up the stairs.

"Oh, sorry, I knew that, I should have remembered. And please, call me Don." He smiled at me.

"Okay, thanks anyway, Don." I went up into my room and closed the door. The clock by my bed read two forty-three. I decided to unpack before Cleo got home. I neatly put all my clothes into the antique white dresser decorated with an array of seashells placed randomly along the top. I finished settling in just as Cleo came into the house.

"Dad, I'm home!" she called as she trekked up the stairs.

"Hey, Rachel! I'm glad you caught up on your sleep." Cleo sat down on my bed. We awkwardly looked at each other for about five seconds. She cleared her throat.

"So, tell me about yourself. I know you're in glee club…"she prompted. Thoughts of home flooded my mind.

"Oh, yeah, I'm the female lead for the glee club, and my boyfriend, Finn, he's the male lead. We do a ton of duets. The whole club is like a big family. We all love each other a lot, even if we do constantly fight and put each other down…" We chattered for a few more minutes, about my life, her life, and a bunch of random stuff. Apparently she and her three best friends, Emma, Rikki, and Bella, hang out all the time, along with their boyfriends, Ash, Zane, and Will respectively. Cleo's boyfriend Lewis was also in their group. I wonder what it would be like to have three close friends instead of a whole bunch of good friends like I do. It would definitely be different, that's for sure. Anyway, we talked and talked late into the night about nothing at all. Maybe I really was making a new friend.


	6. Change

**A/N Hey Guys! I was working on an H2o/Percy Jackson crossover, but my STUPID IPod deleted the whole thing! I want to hear you guys' opinion: Should I rewrite it? I am either way, but your feedback will decide how soon. It won't affect my updating schedule for this fic. So, this chapter is pretty much chapter seven, but I thought I hadn't uploaded it yet, so I added like two pages to it that actually added plot! Yay! Chapter 9 will probably be uploaded today, depending on my *beepin* homework. Well, enough of my venting, on to the chapter!**

Rachel POV

I woke up on Tuesday morning at my usual time, six AM. Finally, the jet lag had worn off! I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop. 42 emails from my dads, six from Finn, and two from Kurt, all pretty much asking me how it was going. I replied to all three the same way. _It's really sunny down here, I'm having a great time, I miss you, Love, Rachel. _I shot an email to Aliza telling her that I was alright, and closed my laptop. I took a shower and put on a yellow sundress over my bathing suit. I hadn't been able to wear it yet back home; we were having an unusually cold spring. After realizing that it was only six forty-five in the morning, I quickly left a note telling Cleo where I was going, and quietly slipped out the front door. I made my way down to the beach, which was almost deserted due to the early hour. I took off my flip flops, hid them behind a bush, and dipped my toes into the crystal-clear water. It was surprisingly warm, so I waded in up to my knees and started down the beach. _Why has Noah not tried to contact me at all? _I thought as I watched the little minnows swirl around my feet. I continued to ponder this thought as the sun came up, making me realize that I had not had breakfast. The beach was starting to get crowded, so I grabbed my flip flops and walked the couple of blocks back to Cleo's house. When I got there Cleo was sitting down to breakfast, so I grabbed some toast and orange juice and sat down across from her. She smiled at me.

"Hey, Rachel! How's it going! What are you planning on doing today?" She asked.

"Oh, maybe go back to the beach, and then work on some songs for glee." I answered, smiling back at her. "You wanna come?"

"Uhhh, no, I've got to, um, clean my room. I have sooo many clothes on the floor, you wouldn't believe it. And, my friends and Lewis are coming over this afternoon. You can finally meet them!" She smiled brightly and stood up to put her dishes in the sink.

"Okay, that sounds great! I'm going to go back to the beach. See ya!" I stood up, putting my dishes with hers. After running upstairs to grab my towel, I started to open the front door, only to come face-to-face with none other than Noah Puckerman.

"Hey Rachel! I was wondering if you-"

"Noah, I am not interested in doing anything with you at the moment. Can you please move so I can go to the beach?" Gosh, why did I say that? I'm so stupid!

"Oh, cool, I'll come with you then?" He smiled that stupid smile that made all girls fall for him, all except me.

"Noah, I'm dating Finn, and I love him, now leave me alone!" I snapped at him, immediately feeling bed after seeing the hurt look on his face.

"I'm sorry Rachel. If you really feel that way, then I will leave you alone." He turned to go, and I slammed the door behind him.

I stormed upstairs to my room. _What is wrong with him! _I thought as I pulled out my sheet music. I docked my IPod, pressed play and started to sing:

_And it's a sad picture, the final blow hits you  
>Somebody else gets what you wanted again and<br>You know it's all the same, another time and place  
>Repeating history and you're getting sick of it<br>But I believe in whatever you do  
>And I'll do anything to see it through<br>Because these things will change  
>Can you feel it now?<br>These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down  
>This revolution, the time will come<br>For us to finally win  
>And we'll sing hallelujah, we'll sing hallelujah<br>So we've been outnumbered  
>Raided and now cornered<br>It's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair  
>We're getting stronger now<br>Find things they never found  
>They might be bigger<br>But we're faster and never scared  
>You can walk away, say we don't need this<br>But there's something in your eyes  
>Says we can beat this<br>Because these things will change  
>Can you feel it now?<br>These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down  
>This revolution, the time will come<br>For us to finally win  
>And we'll sing hallelujah, well sing hallelujah<br>Tonight we stand, get off our knees  
>Fight for what we've worked for all these years<br>And the battle was long, it's the fight of our lives  
>But we'll stand up champions tonight<br>It was the night things changed  
>Can you see it now?<br>These walls that they put up to hold us back fell down  
>It's a revolution, throw your hands up<br>Cause we never gave in_

_And we sang hallelujah, we sang hallelujah  
>Hallelujah<em>

I finished the song, thinking about the Glee club. We had had to put up with a lot of crap from the rest of the school lately, so I had been planning to sing this song to them after the break. I suddenly felt like someone was watching the back of my neck, so I turned around to see Cleo standing open mouthed by my bedroom door. Behind her were three other girls, all of which having blond hair. One of them had platinum shoulder-length curly hair, one had long, straight hair, and one had golden, wavy locks. They were also gaping at me.

"What? What did I do?" I asked nervously.

Cleo spoke up first. "Wow, Rachel, I knew you could sing, but that was amazing!"

"Dang, this girl can sing!" The platinum blonde looked impressed.

"I would think she was lip syncing, but I don't know of anyone who can sing like that!" The girl with straight hair said disbelievingly.

"Yeah, she's good, I guess." The one with wavy hair didn't meet my eyes.

"Oh, Rachel, you haven't met my friends yet. This is Emma-"She pointed to the girl with straight hair. "This is Rikki-"She pointed to the platinum blonde."And this is Bella-"She pointed to the girl with wavy hair. "Lewis should be here any minute, but you know him." Cleo said to me. "Do you wanna hang with us?"

"Um, thank you for your wonderful comments," I thanked them, "But, no, I think I'm going to practice for glee some more, okay?" I directed my question at Cleo, who nodded.

"Okay, but we should do something together this week, it'd be really fun!" And with that, they left. I sat down on my bed.

Now to survive the afternoon.

The doorbell rang almost suddenly, and I groaned. Obviously, anytime Lewis was over was time that Noah would use as an excuse to annoy me. I heard Cleo open the door for them, and some small talk. When I heard the floorboards on the steps creak, I groaned. Why didn't he understand that I was in a happy, committed relationship with Finn?

A knock was heard on my door. When I didn't respond, Noah opened my door slowly and sat on my bed next to me. He opened his mouth to speak a few times, but closed it soon after. After five minutes of awkward silence, he finally spoke up.

"I really meant what I said, Rachel. If you really feel like Finn loves you, I will leave you alone."

I shifted to look at him. "Yeah, I get that, but why me? We already had a chance at romance, and it didn't really work out that well."

He looked into my eyes. "I really have no idea. I know you're unavailable, but I really need someone right now. I just am really messed up with everything happening in my life. I miss Quinn, and I really miss Beth. Sure, I didn't really get to know her, but I love her, and Quinn just took her away from me. So I guess what I really need is someone to tell me that it'll all be okay." He turned away, obviously tearing up a little bit. Whoa, did he just admit his feelings? Noah Puckerman, the self- proclaimed "Badass" was crying. Wow, he really was shaken up over this thing.

I scooted closer and put my arms around him. "I'm sorry Noah, I didn't know. I'd be happy to be that person for you. Come on, it'll all be okay, shhhh, come here." he pulled me closer, and we sat like that for a while, rocking gently back and forth. He wiped his face on his sleeve.

"By the way, while we're on this whole chick-like feelings thing, I wanted to say, I think we make an awesome pair of hot Jews." The hilarious part was that he said this with a completely serious face on.

"Okay, Mr. Hot Jew, let's get ourselves downstairs and hang out with some Aussies!" Man, he was really rubbing off on me.

We walked downstairs, where apparently the other girls' boyfriends had shown up.

"Oh, hey Rachel, the guys came. This is my boyfriend Ash!" Emma hugged a guy with blackish hair and a tall, muscular build.

"This is Zane, my guy." Rikki pointed to a guy with dark brown hair and a dopey smile, reminding me of Finn. Gosh, I missed Finn!

"And this is Will, my boyfriend." Bella linked arms with a blond guy who was admittedly HOT.

"And you know Lewis, obviously." Cleo said to me. "So we were just telling the guys about your AMAZING voice."

"Oh, yeah, Rachel is the best singer in our glee club, and our glee club is pretty freaking awesome, so yeah." Noah looked pleased with his little speech.

Lewis looked confused. "Are you two…dating?"

"What? No, silly, my boyfriend Finn is back home in Ohio." I laughed.

"Yeah, Rach is just my Hot Little Jewish-American Princess." Noah smiled at me.

Everyone else stared.

"Inside joke," I explained, and they seemed to relax a bit.

"So, anyway, Rachel, if you audition, I can see if you could maybe perform a show at our café? Rikki and I own it." Zane asked me.

"What? But _**I **_sing at the café!" Bella blurted.

"Yeah, Bells, she's going back to America in a week, she'll only be doing one show." Rikki rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, I knew that." She blushed.

"Uh, Zane, yes, I would love to. Tomorrow?" I responded.

"Okay, we'll see you later, okay? I need to be home for dinner." Rikki stood up and left the house, pulling an apologetic Zane with her. Eventually, everyone dispersed. When it came time for Lewis and Noah to leave, I hugged him tight and kissed him on the cheek. We promised to do something tomorrow, and he left. I went to my room and started practicing for my audition. Maybe this trip would be fun!

A/N Yay! I know, Puck got totally OOC (Out of character), in the middle, so I tried to fix him in the end. Now I'm just writing a really long AN to get to two thousand words. La di da di da. So how's it going? Good? Great! Oh, here's a good time for a disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. Ryan Murphy and Fox do. If I owned Glee…

Finchel would have been together from the start.

Vocal Adrenaline would suck

Jesse wouldn't exist

ND would have won Nationals

Quinn wouldn't be so angsty or gotten in a car crash

Samcedes would have just GOT FREAKIN' TOGETHER ALREADY!

And I wouls be on the show.

So yeah. By, the way, Reviews, Alerts and Favorites make me upload faster. I swear, it's true.

J


	7. Peace

A/N: Hey guys! I am so sorry, I had a huge project in school these last two weeks, so I couldn't post. To make up for it, here I am, sitting in a house near the beach in South Carolina (USA), posting during my Spring Break. I wanted to thank **EmZ711**, **Jsct**, **Mrs. Pezberry**,** RS975950** (in response to your review, I agree, I'm trying to make them longer than 2,000 words ), **Krystalslazz** (BTW, I LOVE your story! You guys should check out Krystalslazz's _A Fishy Tale _+ the sequel!), **iLoveFinnGlee5**, and **KlaiNicki **for reviewing! Thanks SOOOOO much! And thank you to the various Followers and Alerters too! I love you guys for it! (Did I mention last chapter that reviews make me upload faster? Hmmm, I think I did. *Wink, Wink* Anyway, on to the chapter!

Rachel's POV

I woke up Wednesday morning in a pile of sheet music. Wow, I must have stayed up late practicing for my audition. After a shower, I brushed my hair into a pony tail and pulled on a green shirt with jean shorts and flats. My phone buzzed on the desk, so I grabbed it and flopped down on my bed. Two new texts awaited me:

**Rikki: Hey Rachel, is ten a good time for your audition? We have to be done before the lunch rush.**

**Noah: Hey babe, you wanna go to the beach? How's twelve? Meet at Rikki's?**

I glanced at the clock. It was nine thirty. This would work out perfectly; I would just stay at the café until Noah came. After replying a quick _yes _to both of them, I grabbed my beach bag and sheet music. The wind blew my hair back off my shoulders as I walked down the street. The trek to the café was short and pleasant. I pushed back the bead curtains and took in my surroundings. The room was the same as the last time I was in here, except for the lack of customers. I dropped my bag at a table for two and walked over to the bar, just as Rikki and Zane were coming out of the manager's office.

"Hi, Rachel, glad you're here. Do you want to get started?" Rikki asked me.

"Yeah, I have a really great song picked out." I smiled and went to my bag to grab my music. Zane showed me into the office, where he and Rikki sat down on a loveseat. Rikki motioned for me to sit in a chair facing them.

"Okay, anytime you're ready." Zane prompted.

I took a deep breath and started to sing:

When you're down and you're out  
>And you don't think you have a friend<br>When you're lost in the doubt  
>And you can't see what's around the bend<br>Just hold on  
>Don't turn around<br>Keep on walking  
>Don't lose heart<br>'Cause I am here, I am here  
>Wherever you are, wherever you are<br>When the rain is falling  
>And there's no silver lining<br>And you just can't seem to find the light  
>When you need a reason<br>To help you keep believing  
>Let my love be your blue sky<br>Don't you know that I know  
>Life can be so hard it makes you wanna give up<br>But don't you know over the horizon  
>The sunny day you're looking for<br>Is waiting right here in my love  
>Just hold on<br>Don't turn around  
>Keep on walking<br>Don't lose heart  
>'Cause I am here, I am here<br>Wherever you are, wherever you are  
>When the rain is falling<br>And there's no silver lining  
>And you just can't seem to find the light<br>When you need a reason  
>To help you keep believing<br>Let my love be your blue sky  
>Come on come on<br>Don't you be afraid  
>Whatever comes tomorrow<br>My love is here to stay  
>When the rain is falling<br>And there's no silver lining  
>And you just can't seem to find the light<br>When you need a reason  
>To help you keep believing<br>Let my love be your blue sky

As I belted out the last note, I glanced over at Zane and Rikki. She was looking at him with a smug, *I told you so* look on her face, while he stared at me with a dazed expression. I blushed.

"That was…so…so… AWESOME!" Zane looked shocked. We stayed like that for about thirty seconds, and upon realizing that Zane had lost his ability to speak, Rikki piped up.

"Well, I think I speak for both of us by saying that you are welcome to sing at this café any time you want. Can we pay you in free smoothies?" Rikki asked with a feeble smile.

I laughed. "Well, I was going to say that I would not accept anything in return for my voice, but free smoothies do sound pretty awesome, so you have a deal!" We shook on it, and Zane seemed to come out of his daze. "I'm going to go spread the word about your guest performance!" He sprinted from the room like something was chasing him.

"Well, he's a bit excited, isn't he?" I asked. Rikki and I stared at each other for a couple seconds before bursting out in spontaneous laughter.

I sat at the counter, talking to Rikki and Zane as they worked. The more I listened to them talk, the more I realized that them and their friends were pretty similar to the glee club. They sounded like a little family, but a lot less dysfunctional than mine. At around eleven, Bella and Will joined us. We chatted for a while, having a great time while I took advantage of my free smoothies. At a little after twelve, I felt an arm sling itself around my waist. I looked up to see Noah standing there smiling down at me.

"Hey!" I hugged him and said goodbye to everyone. I grabbed my bag before walking out the door with Noah's arm still around me. He took me down the beach, away from all the other people, until we reached what I_ thought _was the end of the beach. All I saw was a rock cliff, stretching up about fifty feet, and going about a hundred feet into the ocean. Noah explained to me that there were restricted dunes on top for about a mile inland, so no one is supposed to climb them. I started to look for a good place to set my towel when I saw Noah disappear from view out of the corner of my eye. I turned and went to the exact place where I had seen him go, and realized that the cliff folded back on itself, leaving an opening about two feet across covered by bushes. Inside the opening, there was a circular, room-like cove that was about ten square feet on the ground. Looking up, I saw that the circular walls of the cove went up, getting smaller and smaller before ending up about one foot in diameter at the top of the cliff. Noah was stooped down, fiddling with something on the wall as he told me to grab my bag. I did what he asked, and when I got back, a rock had been pulled from the base of the wall, giving way to a tunnel about three feet around.

"You go first." He told me, smiling brightly.

"Are you CRAZY? The whole cliff could come crashing down on us! Not to mention that we could get in SOOOO much trouble! I mean seriously, Noah-"

"Trust me. I can tell you for sure that this tunnel is safe." I looked at him like he was crazy, but (while thanking God I wore shorts) I kneeled down and crawled into the tunnel. Once inside, I felt bad abound insulting the passageway. The dirt floor was worn smooth, and every yard or so metal bars ran across the walls and ceiling. The passage was about fifty yards long, and before I knew it, I was crawling out of the tunnel and onto more sand.

"Wow," was all I could say as I looked at my surroundings. On my left, the cliff was flat and ran out into the ocean just as it had on the other side. On my right, another cliff was mirroring the one on my left. The beach in between was small, about ten yards long, but beautiful. Two trees grew next to the cliffs right on the rocky shoreline, hunching over the beach and winding their branches together. They were both just as tall as the actual cliff, and vines hang from their branches, creating a large curtain in front of the beach that ended about eight feet above the ground. Large boulders sat next to each other between the two trees on the shore, about four feet short of the vines. The sand was as white as pearls.

"If you think that is amazing, come see this." Noah's voice startled me. He grabbed my hand and led me up to the boulders, jumping up on top and sitting cross legged. He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me up to sit next to him on one of the rocks.

The view was amazing. I could see into the horizon for miles. The water was clear and Caribbean-blue. It was simply breathtaking.

"I found this place on Monday. I saw the sign that said 'No climbing', so you know, me, being as badass as I am, climbed it. I found this place, but couldn't come in 'cuz it was too steep to climb and too tall to jump down. So I found the entrance cove down there and decided I needed to dig into it. Lewis' shed had a bunch of scrap metal in it, so I borrowed it along with some tools and secured the tunnel on Monday and Tuesday. But check out the best part!" He pulled off his shirt and jumped into the shallow water, walking out until it was up to his hips. I pulled off my shirt and shorts (I had put my bathing suit on under them at Rikki's) and hoped in after him. I waded out into the water to where he was (it was up to my waist) and turned around, surprised at what I saw. The branches, trees, vines and bouldes all appeared to be one surface.

"From out in the water, you can't tell that it's shorter than the other two cliffs, so-"

"People think it's all one cliff," I interrupted, amazed.

"Yeah, and no one comes in here 'cuz there's some rocks surrounding the cliffs, so boats can't come in, and to walk in, you'd need to go out into the ocean first, and what's the point of that when no one even knows there's anything here?" Noah told me.

"Wow," I said for the second time. "This is really amazing."

"Yeah. Yeah it is." he smiled at me. Not one of his famous smirks, but one of his rare, genuine smiles that could make anyone smile back.

"So? Wanna swim?" He asked me.

"Oh, no, I think I'll just- HEY!" I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence before he picked me up, wading out into the deeper water.

"NOAH ELIJAH PUCKERMAN! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT! THIS IS ABUSE! I COULD AND WILL SUE YOU IF YOU DON'T PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW! AHHHHHHHHHHH! WE'RE GOING TO DIE! AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed as he pulled me deeper, down to where the water was up to his chin. Obviously, this meant that if he wasn't holding me up and I wasn't clinging on to him for dear life, I would have drowned (Hey, give me a break, Ohio isn't exactly known for its expanses of water). Noah just laughed at my rambling.

"Hey, I'm your friend, and friends are supposed to push each other out of their comfort zones, right?" He laughed as I pounded on his shoulder, yelling (Not begging. Rachel Barbara Berry does NOT beg.) for him to go back in to shore. After another minute of torture, he finally waded back up to shore. The second the water was shallow enough for me to stand, I pushed off him and ran up to the boulders.

"Hey, Rach, it's okay, we didn't die, right?" he gave me a smirk before helping me over the rocks.

"I suppose, but don't you ever pull anything like that ever again if you want to live." I huffed as I pulled my towel out over the sand and sat on it. Noah plopped down in the sand next to me and we sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. The waves were washing up to the boulders, making a soft lapping sound that was almost like a lullaby.

"There is something about this place, something…"

"Cool? Beast? Amazing?" Noah tried to supply the word I was looking for.

"No. It's almost… magical. I mean, how many beaches do you know that are totally unseen from the ocean and can't be walked to on land, only to be gotten to by a tunnel through 150 feet of rock?" I looked over at him.

"Hmmm. I guess you're right. I just feel so at peace here. For once I forgot about the whole babygate ordeal." I looked at him strangely.

"What?"

"The word ordeal is in your vocabulary?"

"Watch it, Berry."

Puck's POV

Rachel and I sat on the beach and talked for hours. It was actually really fun. Even though we have known each other since the womb, we had really not known much about each other until today. It really felt nice to actually hang out with a girl who I only have platonic (yes, I know the word platonic) feelings for. I didn't even realize how late it had gotten until the sun started to turn the sky a deep red color. Rach and I packed up our things and crawled through the tunnel. After walking all the way back down the beach to Rikki's, I realized that it was kinda late and not that many people were out on the street anymore.

"Okay, see you tomorrow Noah." She turned down the street adjacent to the café.

"Wait. You're walking?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Yeah. It's only… twenty blocks." She spun around to face me.

"What? No, I'll give you a ride. Come on." I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards my car.

"Noah! I'll be fine, I just-"

"Rachel. It's dark out, we're in a foreign country and you are an abnormally short teenage girl. I am driving you home."

"Fine." She agreed before hopping in to the car door I had opened for her.

We drove in a silence, listening to the wind outside the open windows. The air here smelled fresh and salty, like the sea. I remembered where Cleo's house was from the last two times I'd been there, so I drove there without having to ask Rachel for directions. When I looked over at her, I had to stop myself from snickering. She was asleep with her head resting on my arm. I slowly picked up her head, propping it up against the back of my seat while I ran around to the passenger door. I opened the door, shifting my arms under Rachel's petite body and pulling her out of the car. I kicked the door closed, amazed that she hadn't woken up already. I managed to push the doorbell with my elbow, and it only took a few seconds for Mr. Setori to open the door. He looked at Rachel, and then gave me a strange look. I realized what he was getting at, and quickly replied.

"She's not drunk. She's just really tired. She has a problem with extreme fatigue." I informed him, remembering our conversation from earlier today.

"Ahh, I see." Mr. Setori sounded really suspicious, even though what I said was true.

"So, uh, can I, um, take her upstairs?" I asked. He moved out of the doorway, and I carried Rachel upstairs to the guest room. I laid her down on the bed and took off her shoes before pulling a blanket from the foot of the bed and covering her up with it.

"Noah?" she mumbled, cracking open her eyes.

"Yeah, Rach, I'm here." I pushed her hair back from her face. She really was my little sister in almost every way.

"Thank you for today," she smiled a little bit.

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow, Ray." I kissed her forehead before heading towards her door.

"Goodnight, Noah. See you tomorrow." She turned over onto her side, and I closed the door to her room.

A/N So that's the end of chapter nine! This took a while for me to write, I've been pretty busy lately (Like I said before, I'm in SC for Spring Break! Whooo!). To clear things up, Puck never liked Rachel, he just really needed a friend. I do currently ship Finchel, but now, after reading numerous fanfictions to span the hiatus, I ship Puckleberry and Samchel (I know, weird combo, but it works) as well. This is still a Finchel story, but I'm thinking that I might start a Puckleberry story AND a Samchel story when I'm done (by the way, I'm thinking about a sequel to this story!). And, on one final note, please review. I've not been getting that many reviews, and I want to make sure there's still interest in this story. So please review, and I love you guys! Bye!

-Gracie

(P.S. The fatigue issue Rachel has is called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and it really is a disease that makes you really tired all the time, and it really takes away your endurance. I might include some more parts about it in this story, or I might not, it just meant a lot to me to put it in there. You see, I actually have CFS, and I try to do the best I can with it, which kind of explains why I can't stay up late and update for you guys, even if I really want to. I'm not looking for sympathy though, so please don't shower the reviews with apologies. It's really not that big a deal, I just wanted to put something personal into my story.)


	8. Fire

**A/N: I am a terrible person. I seriously suck. I'm sooooooo sorry guys! I got back to school, had a bunch of work, got cast in my school's drama performance, and time just got away from me. Oh, and I started the first chapter for my second story! I know, I'm not going to be one of those stupid authors that start a new story and stop posting. I'm not going to post the other story until I'm done with this one. I didn't forget about you guys, though. Almost every night I thought about how I really needed to update. Oh, and I just realized how this story would be the perfect Puckleberry story, so I'm not sure how it's going to go now. So, what do you think? Please review with what couple you think I should go with, Finchel or Puckleberry?**

**(By the way, I am changing the way I format my chapters. I realized that I kept changing the way I formatted and that might be a little confusing. So, I promise to stay in this format, with the bold A/Ns, POV changes, and the scene changes. I probably will fix all of my other chapters, but not until I finish the story.)**

**BTW, this chapter is Thursday of their Spring Break.**

**Rachel's POV**

I awoke to find that my window had been left open overnight, letting in a cool sea breeze. I smiled and turned over to see a note sitting on my bedside table.

**Hey R,**

**You fell asleep in my car last night, so I brought you back here. **

**See you at your show tonight!**

**-N**

I put down the note and looked at the clock. ELEVEN THIRTY? I wasn't even jet lagged! I stood up and quickly showered and dressed. My sound check was at twelve, and I really needed to get there on time. I ran downstairs and got a quick breakfast. I called out a quick hello, but it seemed as if no one was home. _Okay, it's eleven forty seven now. It usually takes about a half hour walk to get there. Maybe if I run, I can make it on time. No, not a good idea. Maybe-_

My thoughts were interrupted by the honking of a horn outside. I opened the door to se Noah waving at me from his truck. I grabbed my bag and ran up to him.

"'Thought you might need a ride. You seemed pretty tired last night, so-"

I cut him off by jumping in to the car.

"GO! NOW! FAST!" I yelled, not even caring about how incompetent I sounded. Noah stepped down hard on the gas, tearing down the road. We managed to pull in to the parking lot at 11:58.

"Thank you so much Noah. Here, come in, I'll get you a juice." I spun on my heel and left him standing there. I walked in just as Rikki came out of the office.

"Oh, Hey, Rachel, yeah, we're almost ready for your sound check, but my brain-dead boyfriend over here can't get the speakers to work. You can just relax until it's ready."

"I can probably fix the speakers. I run them at the JCC." Noah was behind me, sitting at a table.

"Okay, Puck, here, Zane'll show you the problem." Rikki and Noah walked over to the stage. I dropped my bag in a booth and looked around. Cleo, Bella and Emma were sitting at a table in the corner of the room. Bella was giving me a glare, almost reminding me of the permanent expression on Santana's face. She turned around, said something to the other girls, and left quickly. Cleo saw me looking and waved me over.

"Hey! Are you here to practice? Oh, you're going to be so great!" Cleo bubbled, looking quite overly excited.

"Yeah, I hope so. Hey, what's up with Bella?" I asked, trying to play it cool, like I didn't actually care.

"You think she hates you, don't you?" Emma asked, taking me by surprise. I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off. "Truthfully, she does. She has been grumpy ever since she met you the other day, leading me to believe that she is jealous of your talent."

I was stunned. Bella was jealous of me? "Really?" I asked. Both of them nodded.

"Yep. We all are, but Bella is just more jealous 'cause she's always been the singer around here." Cleo told me, taking a sip of her juice.

"Oh, well, um, I really don't know what to say to that." I said, looking at my feet.

"It's okay. She'll get over it, just give her time." Rikki said, handing me a juice and sitting beside me in the booth.

"We don't exactly have time though, I'm leaving Saturday," I said thoughtfully. None of them could respond to that.

"Hey, Ray, we're ready over here!" Noah called to me. I looked over to see him standing with a guitar hanging around his neck, Lewis sitting to his right at the drums. Lewis kind of reminded me of Finn; kinda tall, dopey smile, and he played the drums. I walked over to the stage.

"Hi Rachel. We have a guitarist, Mike, he should be here-"

"Are you kidding me? What is wrong with you? That's it, you're fired, you incompetent monkey." Rikki snapped her phone closed and walked over to the stage.

"This is great. Mike cancelled. Now we have no guitarist." She glowered.

"I can play. I mean, if you want me to." Noah volunteered.

"Really? Wow, you're really like superman today. Go ahead!" Rikki sat at a table in front of the stage. I gave Lewis and Noah some sheet music, and started to sing.

_I've been a walking heartache  
>I've made a mess of me<br>The person that I've been lately  
>Ain't who I wanna be<br>But you stay here right beside me  
>And watch as the storm blows through<br>And I need you_

Noah joined in for the rest of the song._  
>Cause God gave me you for the ups and downs<br>God gave me you for the days of doubt  
>And for when I think I lost my way<br>There are no words here left to say, it's true  
>God gave me you<br>Gave me you  
>There's more here than what we're seeing<br>A divine conspiracy  
>That you, an angel lovely<br>Could somehow fall for me  
>You'll always be love's great martyr<br>And I'll be the flattered fool  
>And I need you<br>Yeah!  
>God gave me you for the ups and downs<br>God gave me you for the days of doubt  
>And for when I think I lost my way<br>There are no words here left to say, it's true  
>God gave me you<br>On my own I'm only  
>Half of what I could be<br>I can't do without you  
>We are stitched together<br>And what love has tethered  
>I pray we never undo<br>Cause God gave me you for the ups and downs  
>God gave me you for the days of doubt<br>God gave me you for the ups and downs  
>God gave me you for the days of doubt<br>And for when I think I lost my way  
>There are no words here left to say, it's true<br>God gave me you, gave me you.  
>He gave me you.<em>

As we held out the last note, the room erupted with applause. I smiled and hugged Noah. He took my hand as we bowed to our enthusiastic audience. I giggled as Cleo rushed up and pulled me into a hug.

"That was amazing! And Puck can sing too! Wow! I-" I kind of tuned out the rest of Cleo's babbling. Rikki walked over and looked between Noah and me.

"That was awesome. Puck, do you want to join Rachel in her show tomorrow?"

"Okay, if you want me too." Noah looked dazed. I squealed and hugged him. We stayed at the café chatting with our friends until it was time for the actual show. The room had filled up, and everyone was speculating about who this mystery girl was. The band and I walked up on stage. I took the microphone and everyone quieted down.

"Hi! I'm Rachel Berry, and I'm your guest performer for tonight!" Everyone cheered. "Oh, and this is my friend, No- Puck, and he will be performing also." With that, we launched into our first song.

An hour later, we had finished our performance. Noah and I received many complements on our talent. It was the perfect night.

So, of course, something bad _had _to happen.

"FIRE! FIRE!" Zane screamed, running out of the counter. There was a tiny fire on the stove. The sprinklers turned on, and everyone ran outside. Except, I noticed, Cleo, Rikki, and Emma, who ran into the office. I ducked under a table to try and not get wet, laughing at their reaction to the tiny, contained fire. Noah was laughing too as he ran into the kitchen, took off his shoe, and beat the flame out. He went into the basement to turn the sprinklers off as I ran and told the crowd outside, including some firefighters, that the fire had been put out. They dispersed, and the only people left were Zane, Lewis, Noah and I.

"Where did the girls go?" I asked Zane.

" Oh, I don't know, they just…they're…making sure all of the office stuff is dry. Yeah." He looked nervous, and kept staring at the office window, which I noticed had been closed.

"Oh, okay, I'll just go get them then-""NO!" I was cut off by both Zane and Lewis.

"Uhh, we'll check on them, you guys can go home, I'll see you tomorrow, kay thanks bye." They ran towards the café, leaving Noah and I dumbfounded.

"That was weird." I noted.

"Yeah." Noah agreed.

"Want to go to the beach?" I asked.

"Yeah." Noah responded.

We set off for the beach, splashing around in the waves until I had to go home.

**Rikki's POV**

"FIRE! FIRE!" Zane screamed, running out of the kitchen. I started to laugh, seeing as my "manly" boyfriend was scared of a tiny spark on the stove. I would have put it out myself, but suddenly, the sprinklers went off, drenching me. I looked in panic at Cleo and Emma before making a silent agreement to go to the office. We ran inside, locking the door. Water was everywhere, and sure enough, we fell face down on the floor. The screaming stopped, so I inferred that everyone had gone outside.

"Great. We're soaked!" Emma called over the screeching of the sprinklers.

"Nice observation, Sherlock," I muttered, annoyed, as the sprinklers turned off. I flipped over onto my back, and Emma and Cleo did the same. Since we had locked the door, the water was contained without drainage, resulting in six inches of water all over the floor.

"This is going to take forever to stream dry!" I complained, clenching my fist. We all jumped as the water burned our tails.

"OW! Bad idea!" Cleo squealed as Emma quickly returned the water to its normal temperature.

"Okay, what now? If we open the door, someone could come in!" Emma thought aloud.

"You're right, but I think we have to. There is no way I could steam this all up anyway, because it would just condensate on the ceiling and drip down." I told her as I rolled towards the door. I reached for the handle and turned it, pushing hard. The door wouldn't budge.

"The water pressure stopped the door! I TOLD Zane that we needed a new vent system. But what does he say? 'No, Rikki, we don't-'"

"Okay, calm down Rikki." Cleo interrupted me. She pulled herself towards the window and opened it. "I think I can pull the water up to the window. Once it's outside, you can steam it, okay?"

I nodded. Cleo twisted her hand, and a column of water rose out the window. I evaporated it, and soon the floor was dry. I steam dried the three of us, and we stood up. We opened the door to a rush of water, followed by a panicked Zane. We jumped onto the sofa to avoid the miniature stream.

"Oh my gosh, are you guys okay? I tried to open the door, but it was locked, so-"

"Zane! We're fine! Sheesh, relax a bit, will you? We're going to leave through the window, see you outside." I rolled my eyes and climbed from the sofa onto the windowsill, jumping from the building onto the grass three feet below.

**So that's Chapter Ten! I just realized I forgot to site the songs I used, so here you go!**

**Change- Taylor Swift**

**Blue Sky- Francesca Battistelli **

**God Gave Me You- Blake Shelton**

**Remember; Review with what couple you want me to write! I need to know before Chapter Twelve! **


	9. Metamorphosis

**Okay guys, here it is! Chapter 11! I'm excited for this one, because this is where the magic really gets involved! I have a cool plan for the next arc of chapters, you'll see. So, you guys voted on which pairing to use, and majority rules… PUCKLEBERRY! will have to alter a few storylines, so from now on, if any details are changed; just go with the newest update. I'm sorry to those who voted Finchel, but I'm sure you'll still enjoy the story. Also, the review question for this chapter: what power do you want Rachel to have? It doesn't have to be one of the four powers on the show; I'm actually planning on using new ones. So tell me what you want to see!**

**On another note, just a short rant. I love, love, **_**love **_**Glee, but the ending didn't cut it for me. Is Finchel gone or not? And Finn joining the army? Uggh. Oh, and on the H2o side, I recently found out that nickelodeon has a show on called something along the lines of **_**Alien Surf Girls**_**. Is it just me, or is it H2o all over again? I haven't seen it, so it could be a great show, but from one commercial I felt like I had just gone back in time to where I was watching H2o. Let me know what you think!**

**(PS, SORRY about the late update, I just lost power for 3 days, and was on vacation last week, and basically I just got home at 5 this morning. )**

**Now on to the chapter!**

**Rachel's POV**

Friday was my last day in Australia. You know, now that I thought about it, this week had been pretty fun. I had met some new friends, became good friends with Noah, and even sang for a new audience. I really didn't want to leave.

I sighed, closing my computer. I was still exchanging emails with Aliza, but no one else seemed to be keeping in touch. I hadn't received any emails from my dads, Finn, or Kurt in two days, and they weren't answering their phones. I was starting to get worried.

**Puck's POV**

I was out in the McCartney's driveway shooting hoops. Turns out, Lewis has four brothers, and they play basketball. That was pretty sweet. My phone buzzed in my pocket- there was a text from the Town of Lima. _There has been an extreme blizzard in Lima and the surrounding areas, with snowfall ranging from four to five feet or more. All roads into and out of Lima have been closed, and citizens are directed to stay indoors. Some citizens do not have power at this time. Phone service is down, as well as internet. So basically, if you are receiving this, you are out of town. Please make arrangements to stay where you are until further notice._

This was bad.

I pressed number 4 on my speed dial. The phone rang three times before I heard Rachel pick up.

"Noah? What's up?"

"Rach, I need to tell you something," I sighed.

"Oh my gosh, is everything okay?" She started to freak out.

"Not really. Can I come over?" I asked.

"Um, sure yeah."

"Okay, see you in 5. Bye."

"Bye!" She replied. I ended the call and hopped in the truck I had rented.

**Rachel's POV**

I dressed quickly and stood by the door, wringing my hands. What did Noah need to tell me in person?

I turned around and started pacing up and down the hallway. The house was empty, with Cleo's dad at work, Kim shopping and Cleo who knows where. Actually, I had barely seen Cleo this week. She seemed to always be running off with her friends to somewhere. It was actually quite rude.

I heard footsteps on the front stoop and quickly opened the door, only to find myself standing very close to and staring up at Noah. I quickly stepped back and invited him in.

"So? What's going on? Is everyone okay?" I quickly asked as we sat down in the living room.

"Um, no. Listen, ." I rushed to say in one breath.

"What?" Rachel stared at me.

"There was a bad storm in Lima, now there's no internet or phone, and some people don't have power." Her eyes got huge.

"OHMYGOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!" Rachel yelled as she ran up the stairs. I sprinted after her to find her on her laptop, googleing the storm. Her search brought up a ton of pictures of downed trees, collapsed roofs, and people standing up to their necks in snow. Before she could make a comment, an email appeared in her inbox. Rachel read it quickly before turning to me.

"Aliza wants us all to meet at the Gold Coast JCC in ten minutes." She stood, collecting her purse and writing a note to the Setoris.

"Okay, I'll drive," I offered. She nodded in agreement, and ten minutes later, we were sitting in a meeting room with the other kids and Aliza.

"Okay, kids! I have some good news, and some bad news. The bad news is that there was a huge storm back home, so we can't fly in tomorrow. The good news is, since our flight rescheduled to next Saturday, you have another week to enjoy this trip!" Aliza smiled at us while we groaned.

"What about school?" Eva asked.

"Well, school has been cancelled for this next week at least due to the fact that the snow has to melt at least two feet. Any more questions?" Aliza looked around at us.

"Can't we fly to Cincinnati or Columbus, and then drive to Lima?" I asked her.

"Well, see, since our flight was rescheduled, we only get a tiny inconvenience sum, so basically, we don't have the money." Aliza smiled AGAIN. "Okay, you all can go now. Have fun!"

Everyone started to get up and shuffle out of the room, talking quietly. I waited for Rachel to finish talking with some of her friends before I walked her to my truck. Once we were settled, I starting driving. We were both quiet for a couple minutes before she decided to turn on my radio.

NO ONE touches my radio.

I turned to stop the madness, but she started singing along to the song, having the time of her life. That's when I realized I was fooling myself. Sure, I had only approached Rachel to take my mind off of Beth and Quinn. But, somewhere along the past week, I had actually fallen for her.

_But she's still with Finn._

The thought hit me like a wrecking ball. Sure _I _liked her, but she didn't show any interest in me, though I'm sure I could change that.

But for now, I just sat and smiled, listening to her angelic voice. Instead of turning on the Setori's street however, I drove down to the peer.

"Where are we going?" Rachel asked, confused.

"That island out there. Lewis gave me the keys to his boat, in case we wanted to sail." I answered, parking the truck and opening her door for her.

"Are you sure? Do you even _know_ how to drive a boat?" she asked, hopping down onto the pavement.

"Yeah. My uncle has a boat, taught me how to drive it on the lake in the park." I answered.

"Okay. I trust you, but don't make me regret it" Ray told me.

We walked down the peer to where Lewis's boat was parked. Once we got in, it was a straight shot to the island. I pulled up on shore and hopped out, stepping onto the beach. Rachel came over to me, and I ran to the treeline.

"Come on! Let's explore!" I called to her, darting into the trees.

"Noah! I don't-" I couldn't hear the rest of her sentence, but was too engrossed in following a nearby lizard to notice.

**Rachel's POV**

I sighed, following Noah into the forest. After walking for about fifteen minutes, I got a little worried. It was getting dark, and Noah was nowhere in sight.

"Noah? Noah? Stop joking, I'm getting worried. NOAH? NOAH ELIJAH PUCKERMAN, YOU COME HERE THIS INSTANT!" I yelled, wandering my way into the forest, to where I found a small waterfall. It was so beautiful, I didn't even notice slipping and falling into a hole in a rock.

I slid down a rock tunnel. Barely registering that my shoe was gone, I was surrounded in darkness. Was this some kind of cave? I crawled forward before looking up to see light coming in from another room. I walked up some natural steps to see a round-ish pool of water surrounded by rocks, glowing in the light of the moon. I looked up. I was in some kind of volcano? The moon was almost directly overhead, and I moved forward to get a better look, only to fall directly into the pool. Luckily, there was a ledge, so I grabbed on and watched in awe as bubbles started rising from the pool. The moon shone like a stage light overhead, making the whole experience look magical.

Suddenly, the bubbles stopped, and the moonlight dimmed dramatically. A current stirred the pool and I felt myself being dragged under, hitting my head before everything went black.

**Puck's POV**

I stopped running, realizing I was forgetting something. What was it?

"NOAH ELIJAH PUCKERMAN!"

Oh crap. Rachel.

I ran back to where I came from to find a waterfall and some rocks. A glint of pink peeked out from behind a bush. _Could it… oh no. _I ran to the bush, picking up the dreaded object- a tiny pink converse shoe. I looked around for where she could have gone, my eyes finding a wide tunnel on the side of the rock. Pocketing the shoe, I slid down the tunnel and onto some sand.

"RACHEL? RACHEL?" I yelled, following a little bit of light up some rocks and into another cave. There was a pond surrounded by sand and rocks, and I could barely make out Rachel's head going through another tunnel and out to, I was guessing, the ocean.

"No. No. No." I muttered, taking off my shoes and jumping into the water. I opened my eyes, following the strong current out into the open water. I spotted Rachel, drifting with the current, not moving. I swam as fast as I could to her, grabbing her around the waist and swimming up. Breaking surface, I treaded water, using one hand to push her sopping hair out of her face.

"Rachel? Can you hear me? Please, hear me," I pleaded. When she didn't respond, I swam around a rock cliff and up to the beach, pulling her with me. I laid her down on the sand, listening to her heart rate for any sign of a pulse. Her heart was beating, but weakly, and I knew that if I didn't do something now, I would lose her for good. Taking in a huge swallow of air, I gave Rachel CPR, pressing down hard on her chest, the third time, she started coughing, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Once the coughing subsided, she opened her eyes, taking in the sight of me hovering over her.

"Noah?" she asked weakly.

"Yes, I'm here, Ray, it's okay." I responded.

"You saved my life," she stated.

I laughed. "I guess you could say that." I picked her up and carried her over to the boat, laying her down on the bench and starting the motor. "But now we've got to get you home."

**Okay. Wow. That… wasn't supposed to happen. I kinda got carried away. Well, this chapter was a long time coming. Any other author probably would have had this as their second chapter or something. So, sorry about the wait. But things are just about to get started.**

**So review questions:**

**What power should Rachel have?**

**Is there any scene/storyline that YOU would like to see happen? Yes, YOU!**

**So review! **


	10. Powers

**Hey guys! I'm really inspired to do this chapter, plus I have a ton of free time, so the writing bug has struck again! Thanks so much to **_**Dark Angel aka DementiaJackson, XoXoGossipGirls, **_**and **_**Princess-N-xoxo **_**for their great suggestions for these next few chapters. Also, thanks to ALL of you. Yes, those of you who always review every single chapter hours after it comes out. But also to those of you who don't think I'll care about what you have to say, so you don't review. And to those of you who will be reading this months or years after it was published, so you think you can't review because I don't care about the story anymore. Well I'll tell you all one thing right now; I read EVERY SINGLE ONE of your reviews. They come to my email inbox, and I read them with a smile, grateful to all of you who care enough to tell me what you think. So thank you. Here, let's internet hug. Right here, right now. Come one, bring it in. (If you just actually hugged your computer or other internet device, you get an extra internet high five. )**

**Okay, now that all that sappiness is out of the way, on to the chapter!**

**Rachel POV**

I woke up the next morning to a sharp pain on the left side of my head. "OWWWWWW!" I cried out, reaching up to nurse the injury. Suddenly, a certain mohawk-headed friend of mine popped up out of nowhere.

"I'm up, I'm up. Are you okay?" Noah asked, a look of concern etched onto his face.

"Oh my gosh, Noah, you scared the crap out of me. What are you doing here?" I questioned as the pain began to subside.

"I stayed over last night, just to make sure you were okay. You took a pretty bad hit to the head."

"What? Where?" I asked, needing a further explanation.

"That pool? In the cave? You fell down a tunnel, somehow got into the water…" Seeing the look of confusion on my face, he raised his eyebrows. "Rachel, what do you think happened yesterday?" he asked, perching on the side of my bed.

"Um, I got up, you told me about that storm, we went to Aliza's meeting, then we went to the peer… and after that I don't remember." I frowned. Did something bad happen? "What happened after that?"

"Well, I took you on Lewis' boat to that island out there, and we went into the forest. You slipped into this tunnel, and there was this cave thing. It had a pond thing in it, so I guess you fell in, and when I came down to find you, the current had brought you underwater and you hit your head on a rock. I jumped in and swam out to the ocean after you, pulled you up to the beach, and… you were okay. You must have gotten a concussion from hitting the rock, but you seemed to remember when you woke up on the beach… DANG IT!" he yelled, causing me to cower a little. "I'm sorry Rach, this is my fault."

"How so?" I asked, still not totally up to speed on the past twelve hours' events.

"You slept. You had a concussion. I wasn't supposed to let you sleep. If you sleep with a concussion, it could get worse. It did get worse! Now you can't remember!" By this point, he had stood up and was pacing the room.

"Noah, stop this. This is not your fault. I only forgot about twelve hours of my life, and I spent most of them sleeping. It's no big deal. Don't beat yourself up." I commanded, standing up. I was still in yesterday's outfit, excluding the shoes. I felt sweaty and gross, covered in dried seawater. A shower could wait, but what I really wanted was to wash my face.

**Rikki POV**

I was at Cleo's house with Cleo, Emma, and Bella, getting ready for the day. I normally couldn't be bothered to wake up at 8 am on a Saturday, but the girls had roped me into an early morning swim. I finished changing and turned to see the three of them listening to the wall.

"Guys, what-" I stopped speaking when they forcibly shushed me. I pressed my ear to the wall and listened.

"- and there was this cave thing. It had a pond thing in it, so I guess you fell in, and when I came down to find you, the current had brought you underwater and you hit your head on a rock. I jumped in and swam out to the ocean after you, pulled you up to the beach, and… you were okay." The four of us pulled our heads away from the wall in shock.

"Okay, did anyone else know that Puck spent the night?" I asked. They nodded their heads. When are they told these things?

"Yeah, but there is a more pressing issue at hand. Do you think…?" Emma trailed off, knowing we were thinking the same thing.

"Aww, no, not again!" I exclaimed, as we quickly returned to listening in.

"-going to go wash my face. I'll be back in a second." Rachel told Puck. I was out of Cleo's room and in to the guest room in three seconds flat.

"Good morning! Rachel, NO! Umm, the, uh, plumber came last night, that bathroom is, ah, broken. Come wash your face in Cleo's! Puck, uh, leave. Now." I herded Rachel out of her room and into Cleo's. I shut the door behind us and listened for Puck's footsteps down the stairs before letting out a huge breath.

"What has gotten into you? You made Noah leave!" Rachel seemed upset.

"You heard me, your bathroom's broken. Go wash your face in Cleo's." I ordered her.

"Okaaaayyyyy…?" Rachel shuffled into the bathroom and closed the door. I looked around at my friends. Now we would know for sure.

**Rachel POV**

I walked into the bathroom and shut the door. This was certainly not the first time I thought Cleo's friends were weird. I turned on the water and splashed it on my face. Just as I started to look for a towel or face wash, I realized something was wrong. My suspicions were correct, because not two seconds later I fell flat on my face. "Owww…" I mumbled, rolling over and opening my eyes, only to be staring at…

A tail?

No, I'm serious, My feet had suddenly turned into an orange scaly tail, with a matching bikini top to go with it. _Am I hallucinating? It must be the concussion. _I decided. Knocking on the bathroom door startled me from my thoughts.

"Rachel! We're coming in!" Emma's voice rang through the door. Apparently, I wasn't hallucinating, because the tail was still there. My instincts took over.

**End of POV**

"NO! I'm… going to the bathroom!" she lied, panicking. If they saw her tail, she'd seen enough of Finn's sci-fi collection to know she'd end up in a science lab.

"We both know that's not true, Rachel. We're coming in." The door knob turned, and Rachel closed her eyes, accepting her fate as a specimen. The door opened, and the four girls stood over her, smiling. Why weren't they afraid of her? She was a monster!

"I knew it! I knew she was a mermaid!" Rikki announced proudly. The other three Australians rolled their eyes.

"Rikki, just dry her off. Look at her! The poor girl is stunned!" Emma ordered. Rikki curled her hand into a ball, somehow making the water on Rachel evaporate. Rachel was too stunned to speak or even move, and only got up with Cleo's help.

"Well. We've got a lot of explaining to do."

"So, let me get this straight," Rachel began. "You four are also… mermaids, and you guys, and me, sprout tails when we touch water. You guys have magical powers, and you expect I have some too. You changed into mermaids when you were in the 'moon pool' when the full moon went overhead, and the same happened to me. You guys are keeping it a secret – which I will too. Oh, and not to mention that you turn into freaky zombies when you see the full moon or its reflection." She stared at them.

"Yep, that's pretty much it," Rikki called as she went into the bathroom, returning with four cups of water. "Do you want to see our powers?"

"Sure," Rachel answered. She was actually excited- it's not every day that you turn into a mermaid and get magical powers.

"I'll go first. I can control water, create rain and make wind." Cleo made a spiral of water float out of the cup, a tiny storm cloud rain into it, and a little gust of wind blow Rachel's hair back.

"My turn! I can heat and evaporate water, make fire and create lightning." Rikki evaporated the water, started a little fire in her hand, and sent a bolt of lightning down outside the window, spooking everyone.

"I can chill and freeze water, make it snow and create frost." Emma freezed the water, created a small snowstorm into the cup, and made frost appear on the desk.

"Finally, me. I can turn water into jelly, harden it into glass, and turn it into slime." Bella demonstrated, making the water in the cup into jelly, then glass, and then a slime-like substance.

Rachel sat with an amazed expression on her face. "Wow… you think I have a power like that! This is so exciting!" She giggled.

After two hours of mimicking the girls' hand movements, Rachel still hadn't discovered her power.

Exhausted, she sat down on the floor. "Why can't I do it?" She asked no one in particular.

"Don't worry. Maybe you have a different power than us." Emma comforted her.

Rachel got extremely frustrated in an extremely short amount of time. "It isn't fair!" she hissed, clenching her fists. Suddenly, the water in the cup started to evaporate.

"Whoa!" The five girls watched as Rachel discovered her first power.

"Keep going! Try water control!" Cleo said. Rachel pulled a water tentacle into the air, freezing and then melting it into the cup. Pulling her hand into the last stance, she turned the water into jelly, glass, and then slime.

An hour later, they had discovered that Rachel had every single one of their powers, which, of course, sent Bella moping home.

"I'll go talk to her," offered Rikki, standing up and following Bella out of the house.

"Why don't we get some lunch? I know this great seafood place, I'll text Rikki," Emma asked, whipping out her phone.

Rachel yawned, stretching her hands out wrist-up. "Yeah, that sounds great! I could use some food… What?" she asked, noticing the other girls staring behind her. She turned around just in time to see the lamps on either side of Cleo's bed falling back into place.

"Whoa!" the three girls exclaimed.

"Rach, do that again," commanded Cleo. Rachel stuck out her hand the same way she had before, and Cleo's beanbag started to rise off the ground. She moved her hand to the left, and the beanbag moved the same way. In shock, she crunched up her hand, causing the beanbag to drop onto the floor.

"I guess that's some kind of… telekinesis!" Emma exclaimed.

"Why does she have a power none of the rest of us have?" Cleo asked.

"Well, remember when you guys had to fight the comet? Well, that was the reason the four of us became mermaids. I guess what Rachel has to do with her powers requires telekinesis." Emma told her.

"Wait! You guys fought a comet?" Rachel asked, shocked.

"Yeah, that's a long story. Come on, we'll tell it to you during lunch." Cleo said, leading them out of the room.

"So, she can move stuff around? Cool! Why can't we do that?" Rikki complained, sipping her iced tea.

"Because she needs it. We don't." Emma reminded her.

"I still can't believe you guys saved the world!" Rachel said for the fifth time.

"It wasn't as dramatic as it sounds. So, what's up with Bella?" Cleo asked while picking at her oysters.

"She was upset that Rachel was 'taking' everything that was hers. Rachel can sing, and now she's a mermaid with all of Bel's powers and more." Rikki explained.

"I didn't mean to make her feel bad," Rachel said quickly.

"We know. She's easily upset. I think you should talk to her," Emma suggested.

"Will do," Rachel agreed. She really wanted to be friends with all the mermaids.

"Ooohh! Let's take Rachel swimming! She hasn't gotten to yet, and as far as I know, Ohio doesn't have an ocean." Cleo smiled excitedly.

"Umm, here's the thing. I kind of… can't swim." Rachel blushed.

"Oh, with a tail you swim completely differently. You'll be fine." Emma assured her.

"Fine. Let's go."

After five hours of teaching Rachel the ropes of mermaid swimming, all four of them were tired. They decided to relax in the moon pool for a bit before heading home.

"I remember this place now. It's really pretty with the full moon overhead," Rachel told them as she looked up at the sky.

"The only time I've ever seen it like that in the past four years, I was either crazy or saving the world," Rikki commented.

"You guys have had powers for four years?" Rachel asked.

"Well, Rikki, Emma and I have. We changed in this pool together. Bella has been a mermaid for ten years; she changed in a pool in Ireland," Cleo informed her.

Suddenly, a thump was heard from the entrance cave. "Guys? Hello?" echoed a guy's voice.

Rachel panicked, tugging on Emma's arm. "Come on!" She whispered, disappearing underwater. When the other three didn't follow, she had no choice but to surface again. "Guys, COME ON!" she tugged on them more forcefully.

"Rachel? What the…?" she looked up to see a very questioning Lewis. Rachel shrieked, pulling up a huge ball of water and throwing it at him, sending him flying backwards onto the sand.

"RACHEL! He knows!" Cleo exclaimed, pulling herself out of the water towards Lewis, who was struggling to sit up.

"What? You said you were keeping this a secret!" Rachel defended herself.

"Yeah, we probably should have told you that a ton of people already know," Emma observed.

"You think? Who knows? Rachel asked.

"Umm, Lewis, Zane, Ash, and Will. That's it, right?" Rikki answered.

"Rachel's a mermaid? What? And she has Cleo's power? WHAT?" A very confused and probably concussed (_A/N: That means 'has a concussion'_) Lewis asked loudly.

"Yes, I am a mermaid, thank you very much." Rachel answered proudly.

"And she has more than just Cleo's power. She has all four of our powers, with the upgrades, and she also can use telekinesis," Rikki added.

"Since when?" Lewis kept on with his rapid-fire questions.

"Since last night," Rachel answered simply.

"Wait… All the powers? Plus telekinesis? Show me!" Lewis demanded. Rachel assumed he meant the latter and pulled a rock from the ground, made it fly across the cavern and land at his feet.

"Whoa! Why do you have a power none of the others have?" Lewis asked her. She shrugged.

"Lewis, I have no idea, but I'm not going to be your science experiment. We should go, it's getting late," Rachel suggested to the others. The nodded in agreement.

"Bye Lewis!" The four of them chorused before speeding out of the tunnel, leaving a very confused boy alone on the island.

**SO! That was a FUN chapter to write! Yay! So Rachel already has one new power, plus four old ones. To clarify, anything you have ever seen any of the other girls do, she can do too. I hoped you liked it!**

**(P.S. My new avatar, as you may have seen, is Rachel as a mermaid. This imaged was photoshopped (or made by) the lovely KlaiNicki, who sent it to me a while back. You, my friend, are awesome!)**

**Review with what YOU want to see in the story! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!**


	11. Confrontation

**A/N: So here we go! Another chapter! Sorry for the wait, I suck (again). I've been on vacation, and now I'm a camp counselor for five-six year olds (yay?), so I'm pretty busy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't even…**

**No beta, all mistakes are mine! **

Rachel woke on Saturday slightly groggy from the strenuous physical activity of Friday. She walked into the bathroom and reached to turn on the shower, quickly pulling back as the water started to pour out overhead. Yesterday's events started coming back to her; the mermaids, the magic, everything had happened in such a short period of time. Using her telekinesis to shut the tap off, Rachel walked into the hall and knocked on Cleo's door.

"Who is it?" she called.

"Rachel!" Rachel yelled back.

"Come it!" Rachel entered to find Cleo standing at her fish tank, cleaning it while holding one hand in the air.

"Where are the fish?" Rachel asked, curious.

"Right up there," Cleo answered, pointing to the ceiling. In a floating ball of water sat all of Cleo's fish, swimming around clueless.

"Whoa! You can hold things IN water?" Rachel asked, fascinated.

"Yep. It gets a little tiring though, holding up my arm."

"Oh, here, let me take it," Rachel offered, holding out her hand and taking control of the rectangle. She brought it down to eye level, and suddenly had an idea. Rachel focused on the five supporting sides of the shape and, with her other hand, turned the edges into Bella's glass-like substance. Rachel then lowered the makeshift tank onto Cleo's desk.

"Cool! How come I never thought of that?" Cleo questioned, staring in wonder at the structure.

"I don't know, it just came to me. Listen, um, the guest bathroom doesn't have a tub, so can I…"

"Oh yeah, I should have thought of that. You can take a bath in mine, go ahead," Cleo told her, turning back to continue cleaning the fish tank.

An hour later, Rachel was ready and out the door to do a practice at Rikki's. Checking her phone, Rachel noticed an unusually high number of missed texts, all from… Noah? Oh, that's right; Rikki had banished him from the house yesterday. He was probably really pissed off. Pushing that problem aside for later, Rachel entered the café to find Rikki, Zane and Bella sitting at a table by the stage. She went over to them, exchanging hello's while she put her stuff down.  
>"So, welcome to the club!" Zane told her, shaking her hand.<p>

"He means the Mermaid Club, that's his name for us," Rikki explained in a hushed tone.

"You told him?" Rachel asked, surprised.

"Well, yeah, I thought it would be easier if the boys knew too. Are you mad?" Rikki asked, clearly sorry.

"No, just surprised. Oh, and thanks for kicking Noah out yesterday, he's pissed at me now," Rachel said as she stood on stage, adjusting the microphone to the right height.

"Well, it was kind of necessary, wasn't it?" Rikki smirked. Just as she said that, Noah walked it, spotted Rachel, and stalked towards her.

"Um, guys, I'm gonna go, okay? I'll be back." Rachel rushed out of the café and towards the pier, just to try to make Noah lose sight of her. She already had people in Australia who knew her secret, she couldn't have one at home, too. And, as far as Rachel knew, Noah was just about the worst secret keeper around.

"Rachel! Hey, Rachel!" She heard from behind her. She knew she was trapped on the peer, but just thought she could stall a bit longer, trying to think up and excuse as to why she had been 'ignoring' him.

"Rachel!" Noah had caught up with her and grabbed her wrist, trying to make her turn around. Rachel turned and yanked her wrist away from him, her back turned against the edge of the peer. By this point, they were way past any fisherman, and no one was further out then them.

"Why were you ignoring me? Did I do something? And why did you guys kick me out yesterday?"

Rachel's mind raced. She was always terrible at lying, and being put on the spot didn't help much.

"Umm, we were having a girl's day, Noah," she stuttered, trying to think of a way out. Noah took a step closer.

"For some reason I don't believe that," he told her. He wasn't being threatening in the way he said that, but she was panicking. Taking another step back, Rachel didn't realize how close she was to the edge, and she fell backwards five feet down into the water.

Time seemed to slow down as she sunk into the murky ocean. Resurfacing, Rachel looked up to see Noah leaning over the edge of the pier, calling her name.

**Rachel POV**

"Rachel! Oh my gosh, Rachel, are you okay? Here, give me your hand, I'll pull you up!" he called down to me. I panicked, counting down from ten in my head.

"Um, I'm okay, I'll just swim back to shore, okay bye." I ducked my head under the water just before I felt my legs transform into a tail. Instead of swimming to shore however, I swam the opposite direction, towards Mako Island. I pulled myself up out of the moon pool, and used my heating power to steam-dry. I texted the other mermaids, and within minutes all four of them had arrived. I told them about what happened.

"So now he's going to be suspicious, I mean seriously, for all he knows I can't swim at all! Gosh, I'm so stupid, I've only been a mermaid for a day and I already almost blew my secret." I stepped back into the pool with the other girls, sitting down on a rock ledge and watching my fin appear.

"Why can't you just tell him? You have become best friends in like, a week, right?" Rikki suggested.

"I would love to, but I don't think I want anyone back home to know yet. Plus, Noah could quite possibly be the worst secret keeper on the planet." I sighed.

"That's a good idea. For the next couple weeks, you should figure out who you can trust- _then _you should decide who you want to tell, if anyone at all." Emma advised.

We all decided to go back to the café afterwards, as it was getting towards the time for my show. Bella still hadn't said a word to me all day, and I was getting sick of it. If she had a problem with me, she should just say something.

That night, I preformed alone, without Noah. As I sang, my mind began to wander. What was happening in Lima? I hoped everything would be okay, and I knew it probably would, but the not knowing was killing me.

Sunday found me trying to avoid Noah all day. Cleo, Emma, Rikki, Bella and I watched chick-flicks all day until it was time for my performance at Rikki's. We all got ready at Cleo's house before swimming there from the canal in Cleo's backyard to a part of the beach hidden away under the dock by Rikki's. I started my show at eight, and by nine thirty I decided to wrap it up. I was n the middle of singing Here's To Us when Noah walked in, spotting me and stalking towards the stage. In a repeat of yesterday, I dropped my microphone and ran out of the café towards the park next to the beach. I stopped to catch my breath and before I knew it, he had caught up to me.

I panicked. I knew that Noah would never hurt me, nor was he trying to be scary, but I was too scared of releasing my secret to calm down.

"Rachel! Rachel? Where have you been? You weren't at the beach after you fell in, I couldn't find you anywhere!" Noah questioned.

"Get away from me!" I stumbled backwards on the park's bike path. He followed, continuing to question me.

"I didn't even think you could swim! But now suddenly, you can just disappear into the Atlantic Ocean?" He advanced towards me, grabbing my wrist.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I yelled. Suddenly, a huge purple ball of light erupted around me, knocking Noah five feet away into the grass. I gasped, surprised, and ran down the path towards the beach.

**Bleh. I'm sorry if the chapter wasn't all that interesting. I've been writing this for the past month, in bits and pieces, so I'm sorry if it's choppy.**

**Anyway, Rachel has yet ANOTHER power! Yes, she now can create force fields (when extremely emotional, i.e. scared, angry, etc)! **

**PLEASE review! I'll love you forever! :P**


	12. No Ordinary Girl

**A/N: I'm so sorry. I haven't posted in a month. School's been stressful; I got a part in my school musical, etc. On top of all that, I'm beginning to write more songs, so that's taking up a bunch of time. I had made way more headway on this chapter, but my computer deleted it****. Oh, and I'm going to start using larger gaps in time, because I know that the story is getting a bit slow and needs to move along.**

**On to the chapter…**

The next few hours seemed like a blur to Rachel. She had dived in to the ocean and swam all the way to the moon pool, finding Rikki, Cleo, Emma and Bella waiting there. In between sobs, Rachel managed to get the story out to her new friends.

"Oh, Rachel, it will be okay. I don't think you hurt him badly, and we can always come up with some excuse for the magic. You know, lighting or something," Cleo said, comforting her.

"So you have _another _power? What did you do to activate this… ball of purple?" Rikki asked.

"I, um, did… I think… this," Rachel answered, making a pushing movement with her hand. Nothing happened.

"Well, try again, then. If it happened once, it can happen again." Bella said coldly. Rachel made the same hand motion. Again, nothing.

"Well, I'm no Lewis, but I think I have an idea. Rachel, listen to me." Emma commanded. Rachel turned to look her in the eye.

"If anyone finds out about your secret, your life will be over. Everyone will think you are weird. You will be put in a zoo to be stared at by visitors. Tons of science experiments will be preformed-"

"STOP! Emma, what the hell? What is wrong with you?" Rikki yelled.

"Look!" Cleo gasped. Tiny sparks of purple energy were glowing at Rachel fingertips as she started sobbing even harder. The sparks collected into one large sphere in the palm of her hand, and before they knew it, the ball flew at Emma, narrowly missing her as she ducked and crashing into the rock wall. The impact emitted a shock that shook the entire volcano.

"Just as I thought. She doesn't control the power; it's kind of a reflex, when she's upset. I'm sorry Rachel; I didn't mean any of that. I just needed to test my theory," Emma explained.

All five girls sat silently.

"That could quite possibly be either the most amazing thing ever, or the most terrible." Rikki said, glancing at Rachel (who was still silent).

Rachel was scared. She was never one to keep her emotions in check; she was an open book. She couldn't have a ball of energy burning a hole in the choir room every time she had a diva storm out.

"Should I tell Noah?" She asked.

"I think you should think really hard about whether or not you really want to tell anyone, and _then _decide who." Emma answered logically.

"Okay. Thanks guys."

Puck sat in Rikki's, sipping on a pomegranate smoothie (Hey, pomegranates were _badass_). He loved it in Australia. The accents were freakin' cool, and the beach was awesome. The only thing out of place was Rachel. She had been so weird lately. First she acts all weird, running away, and then he remembers a bunch of random purple and then he blacked out, waking up on the ground alone. He asked Lewis about it, who turned pale and then told him that if Puck just gave Rachel some space, she would come to him. And Puck was all for being lazy and doing nothing, so it was a win-win. He heard someone clear their throat above him, and looked up to see Rachel wearing a pink sundress.

"Come with me," Rachel said. She took Puck's hand and pulled him (and his smoothie) out of the café and on to the beach.

A couple minutes later, they were sitting in the sand in their private beach. Puck was watching Rachel, who was (creepily) staring out into the waves.

"So, why'd you drag me here?" He asked, snapping her out of her trance. Rachel sighed and turned towards him.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me, so I'll show you." She motioned for him to follow and stood up, walking to the edge of the beach and climbing to sit on the top of a boulder. Puck sat next to her, slightly confused.

"Promise you won't freak out, okay?" She asked him. All Puck could do was nod, not sure what was going on. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and jumped, landing in water about up to her waist.

"Wait! Rachel! You can't swim!" Puck called. She payed him no attention, diving into the water. Puck jumped into the water, frantically searching for any sign of Rachel. He was just about to call for help when her head surfaced the water, looking at him with a strange mix of calm and fear. He sighed in relief, staggering towards her. With one swift motion, she turned, giving Puck the biggest scare of his entire life.

She had a tail. Like a legit fish tail. It was orange, and scaly, and was attached to Rachel. His sister had always loved mermaid stories, so he knew all about the girls that were "half human, half mermaid," but never actually believed they were true!

Puck screamed, staggering backwards before falling down. Rachel frowned, swimming over to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"NO! You're a fish! You just turned into a freakin' fish right in front of me! How would I be okay?" He asked, still staring at her tail.

Rachel sighed. "Let's go to Cleo's."

"So, again. You're a fish. You four are also fish. Except, you're only fish when you touch water. You guys are magical, and have superpowers. And this is all totally legit," Puck clarified, staring at the five girls, plus Lewis, standing in front of him.

"Yep. So that's why I kind of… attacked you. Sorry." Rachel stared at the ground.

"Nah, I'm fine. But I'm still not sure that you haven't drugged me and that this isn't all part of some master plan," Puck ran a hand through his mohawk.

Rachel laughed. "You're fine, Noah. But that's how I felt when they first told me all of this."

"Yeah, this is crazy. My sister was always in to all this magic stuff, but I never thought it would be real. No one did," Puck reminded them.

"We know. And, may I remind you, if you tell anyone, I will personally swim to Ohio and kill you. Slowly." Rikki glared at him. The logs in the fireplace burst into flame, and he swallowed.

"I won't. Promise." Puck sighed. "This is insane."

"I know. But cool, huh?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah. I guess Quinn isn't the real Ice Queen, is she?" He smiled.

Emma laughed. "I have the original icy glare, thank you very much."

The rest of the week went by a little too fast for everyone's liking. The mermaids spent their days swimming, sometimes with the boys, sometimes without. It was like Rachel had always been one of them. She was amazed by how nice they all were.

"I'm so glad we met you, Rachel." Cleo sighed. The girls were sitting in Cleo's room, painting their toenails.

"Too bad you have to go tomorrow." Emma said. Rikki and Cleo murmured their agreement. Bella just huffed and sat up quickly.

"I'm going home," She said suddenly, standing up and leaving the room. Rachel quickly got up and followed her into the hallway.

"Bella!" She called.

"What?" Bella spun around quickly.

"Why do you hate me so much? Ever since I got here, you've been nothing but rude and mean to me!" Rachel yelled.

"Because, you're just so much… better!" Bella yelled back, turning around again.

"What?" Rachel asked, bewildered.

"Ever since you got here, it was 'Rachel this', and, 'Rachel that'. You show up, take MY singing spot at the café, and then you become a freakin' mermaid, too! Not only that, but you have to have all four powers! And like two more! It seems like you're just so special, the best, and these past two weeks have been all about you! Did you realize that we only have one week left until spring holidays are over? I really wanted to spend them with MY friends, but this has all been about you! You basically came here and jut became a better version of me!" Bella took a deep breath.

Rachel was startled by the sudden outburst. "Oh, Bella, I'm so sorry!"

"Figures," Bella muttered.

"No, I'm so sorry I didn't understand. I never meant to upset you. The café thing was only for two weeks, but if I was staying here permanently, I would never take your job. I've heard you sing, and you're really fantastic. Plus, the original songs are amazing. And I never really wanted to have these powers, they were kind of forced on me," Rachel laughed. "But anyway, I'm really sorry for everything."

Bella looked at the floor. "I'm sorry too, for acting like a selfish brat. I know you didn't have any control over this situation, I guess I was just… jealous," she giggled.

"Don't be. 'Cause you have way more friends than me anyway," Rachel sighed.

"You have us," Bella told her.

"Really? You want to be friends?" Rachel asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Bella smiled.

"Great! Now that we're friends, I wanted to tell you, we should sing together sometime," Rachel suggested.

"Sure. I have the best song."

(Rachel, **Bella, **both)

I've got a special power  
>That I'm not afraid to use<br>Every waking hour  
>I discover something new<span>

**So come on this is my adventure  
>This is my fantasy<br>**It's all about living in the ocean  
>Being wild and free<span>

Cause I'm no ordinary girl  
>I'm from the deep blue underworld<br>Land or sea  
>I've got the power if I just believe<p>

Cause I'm no ordinary girl  
>I'm from the deep blue underworld<br>Land or sea  
>The world's my oyster, I'm the pearl<br>No ordinary girl

**We gotta stick together  
>Cause the best things come in <strong>_**fives**_**  
>I want it to last for ever<br>All the magic and fun at sea  
><strong>[ Lyrics from: lyrics/k/kate_alexa/no_ordinary_ ]  
><span>So come on this is our adventure<br>**There's no telling where we'll go**  
>But all I want is just to live amongst the h2o<p>

Cause I'm no ordinary girl  
>I'm from the deep blue underworld<br>Land or sea  
>I've got the power if I just believe<p>

'Cause I'm no ordinary girl  
>I'm from the deep blue underworld<br>Land or sea  
>The world's my oyster I'm the pearl<br>No ordinary girl 

Bella and Rachel finished the song together, as the entire café clapped for them. They hopped down from the stage, grinning as their friends clapped for them.

"That was amazing! You wrote that entire song, Bella?" Puck asked, hugging Rachel.

"Thanks, and, yeah, I wrote the song," Bella grinned widely, kissing Will.

"I loved singing with you. I've got to come back and spend some more time here!" Rachel gushed, facing her Australian friends.

"Yeah! We have a break from June to July. Maybe you could come down?" Cleo asked.

"I don't know, guys, my dads will not want to fund another plane ticket," Rachel said.

"Who said anything about a plane?" Rikki asked, smiling.

"Are you suggesting I swim? To Australia? You've got to be crazy!" Rachel looked shocked.

"We once swam to Florida. It only took about three days, and we took breaks in India and Africa. It was cool." Bella shrugged.

"That'd be fun, but I don't know if I could do it alone," Rachel reasoned.

"Yeah. We'll talk about this later, though. Tonight is your last night in Australia, what do you want to do?" Emma asked.

"I think you know," Rachel smiled mischievously.

Before the boys knew it, all five girls were out of the café and jumping off the pier.

**A/N: So that's the chapter guys! SOOO sorry it took like two months to write this chapter. I've been extremely busy lately, but it will slow down. You guys are the best readers on fanfiction! So, a couple updates: **

**I'm thinking about posting a few new stories. I have two Glee stories that I've written the equivalent of about two chapters each on. Should I post? Tell me in a review.**

**So Glee. The Break Up. I don't have words. Okay, maybe I do. It was a beautiful episode, and I loved the music, but no. I refuse to believe that any of them broke up. Nope. Didn't happen.**

**Excited for Glee to come back tomorrow? I am!**

**You may (or may not) be surprised to know that I am an extreme Harry Potter fan. I've started a new Facebook page about HP, called, 'Number Five Privet Drive'. I know the address is number four, but I changed it for reasons I explain on the page. I post cool pics and edits. Would you please go over and like it? Pretty please? The profile pic is of Hedwig the owl. If you post on the wall there with the words, "The best things come in fives," I will give you any shout out you want, or do a spam of your favorite HP character. I'm admin Ginny over there, and I would appreciate it if no one called me Gracie, or mentioned my fanfics. I want to remain anonymous on facebook, for security reasons. Thanks so much!**

**A reminder, you guys are the best. Thanks so much for putting up with my late updating. You're the best. Any suggestions can be left in a review.**

**THANK YOU!**

**-G**

**(P.S. Sorry for the annoyingly long AN. I wrote this over the span of two months, so it's a bit choppy. **


	13. Suprise

**A/N: Hey guys! Happy holidays! So, here's what's up: I'll be updating sooner now, I promise. I'll also be rewriting and replacing the earliest chapters, cause they suck. I already redid chapter one, so you might want to go reread, since it is set on the same day as the end of this chapter and I changed some stuff.**

**Now, onto the chapter!**

Puck was bored. Scratch that, he was going insane. Their rescheduled flight was during the day (Well, day wherever they were. Time zones were confusing and crap.), so he couldn't sleep. Well, _he_ couldn't. Rachel was curled up in a ball on her seat, and had been asleep for two hours. Jewfro was talking loudly, recording some sort of trip summary for the temple website. The stupid plane only had three year old parenting magazines. All of the people in them looked so happy, with their kids and their families. Puck wished he could have had that life with Beth.

For a while, he thought he could have. He and Quinn could take care of their daughter, and finish high school at the same time. He would get a good job and buy a house and he and Quinn could share custody.

However, Puck knew that wasn't true. Two teens in high school would not be able to give a child the life it deserved. Shelby was Beth's best bet.

Puck's life was a mess. He wasn't lying when he said he needed someone to tell him that it was all going to be okay. That he wasn't a Lima Loser. He wasn't lying when he said Beth had just been taken away from him, and he missed her.

He was lying, however, when he said that he didn't actually have feelings for Rachel.

Truth is, he had had a crush on her forever, since they met as babies at temple- they used to be best friends, until middle school. Rachel had been popular, before high school. When Puck finally got up the courage to ask her to the eighth grade dance, he found out that she had already been asked by another jock. Puck was hurt, badly. Normally, someone wouldn't be hurt by the fact that their best friend said yes to a date with someone else, especially when that friend didn't know about that person's feelings for them. But this was Puck; he had finally worn his heart on his sleeve, and was hurt again. So Puck decided to make her hurt like he did, and threw a slushie in her face, starting a legacy.

When they had dated for that week, he wasn't going to break up with her. In fact, that had been the happiest week of his life. When Puck invited (read: forced) Rachel to go on this trip, he had not had the intention of making her cheat on Finn. He simply had the intention of making her see that she had more fun hanging out with him for a week than she had ever had with Finn. Sure, the whole mermaid thing was kind of a setback, but now that they were friends again, he had even more time to convince her.

Next to him, Rachel sat up and stretched, letting out a long yawn.

"How long did I sleep?" She asked.

"A couple hours. We have three more to go," He informed her, stretching as well.

The two teens sat up in their seats and silently started at the seat in front of them for about five seconds.

"This is _really_ boring," They said at the same time.

Stifling their laughter, Rachel put a finger to her lips and pointed to a tray of glasses a flight attendant was carrying. She pressed a finger to her temple, thinking. Suddenly, a glass of apple juice started floating. Puck looked back at her in shock. Rachel motioned around them, reminding him that no one was really paying attention. The glass floated higher. A baby sitting in a car seat looked up at the glass, giggling happily. Rachel quickly put the glass back down, and rubbed her head.

"That type of telekinesis is really hard. It takes a lot of energy to do it without the hand motion." Rachel whispered.

"Wow! That was really cool!" Puck exclaimed.

"I know," Rachel said, flipping her hair sarcastically. "Now watch this."

Rachel nodded her head towards a person sitting across the aisle from them. He had a soda sitting on his food tray, and was reading a book. Quickly positioning her hand, she turned the liquid into jelly. Puck and Rachel watched as he picked the glass up subconsciously to drink, and proceeded to dump a large amount of jelly on his face.

Again, trying (and failing) not to laugh, they watched as the man angrily called for a flight attendant and tried to wipe it all off with a cocktail napkin.

"I could get used to this," Puck smiled.

After an end-of-trip recap with Aliza, Rachel and Puck walked towards the doors of the airport.

"It's colder than I thought it would be," Rachel said, wrapping her jacket tighter around her. She opened the door and walked outside, only to turn around and push Puck back inside.

"What the heck?"

"It's _snowing_, Noah. There is _snow _everywhere! What am I going to do? I can't go out there!" Rachel started pacing back and forth. Puck grabbed her shoulders.

"Here," he said, shrugging off his large jacket and handing it to her. "I'll run out and grab the car, and pull it back here. When I get here, you run, okay?" Puck asked, grabbing the suitcases.

"Okay. Thanks, Noah." Rachel called after him. She watched him run towards where they parked. A few minutes later, Puck pulled his truck up outside, about twenty feet away. Taking a deep breath, Rachel pulled Puck's jacket hood up and ran. Her sneakers were not waterproof, so she tried to stay on as dry pavement as possible. Puck opened the door from the inside, and Rachel jumped inside, slamming it.

"I think I managed to stay dry," Rachel said, surprised. Suddenly, the collar on the jacket flipped, showering her in melted snowflakes.

"Spoke to soon," Rachel groaned. She quickly took of the jacket, placing it over her lap. Puck watched, fascinated, and she turned into water before turning into a mermaid once again. Her carefully straightened and ponytail-ed hair was suddenly down and wavy, as if she had just walked off the beach. Rachel shivered, pulling the jacket up higher.

"What are you staring at? Drive!" Rachel commanded. Puck stepped on it, driving out of the people- infested drop off area and into an empty parking lot.

"Okay. What now?" Puck asked, parking the car. She handed him the jacket, revealing her orange tail that was almost too long for the truck's foot room.

"Hold up the jacket and crack open the window," Rachel instructed. Puck did as she said, and Rachel held out her fist. Curls of steam rose off the jacket and out of the cracked window. She then turned back to herself, using her power to dry herself off as well. Once she had transformed back, Rachel took back the jacket, putting it on again. Turning back to Puck, she frowned, and started to steam dry him as well.

"Hey! That stings!" Puck yelped. Rachel laughed.

"Well now you know what will happen when you mess with me. And man up, you baby." she lightly smacked his arm. Puck shook his head, driving out of the parking lot and towards Lima.

"Well, you know, you shouldn't mess with me, cause you know; I could just open your window…" Puck trailed off.

"You would not!" Rachel said, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Maybe if you touch my radio you would find out," Puck smirked. Rachel huffed, curling up into a ball on the seat.

Soon, they had arrived in Lima. The roads weren't terrible, but you could tell they had been worse. There was about a foot of snow everywhere. Puck drove Rachel to her house, pulling up into the opened garage. Rachel turned to look at him.

"I had a lot of fun this week. It was crazy, and this whole mermaid thing will most likely cause a ton of problems, but thank you." Rachel smiled, leaned up, and kissed him on the cheek. Before Puck could even register what had happened, Rachel and her suitcase were out of his truck and walking up the steps from the garage to the house. Rachel's dad waved to him, and closed the door.

The next few days were spent in her room by Rachel. She cited homework, even though she already had finished it. In reality, Rachel was curled up in her bed, watching musicals and brooding about not being able to play in the snow. Her friends were texting her updates about what had happened during the snowstorm. Everyone was excited about their two week long spring break. School was starting back up on Monday, so everyone was trying to get in their last day of fun. Managing to hide away all day once again, Rachel only came downstairs for dinner.

"Honey, are you feeling alright? You seem sick." Leroy felt her forehead. "You don't have a fever…"

"I'm fine, daddy. I'm just tired from, you know, jet lag and stuff." Rachel sat down at the table.

"Okay. Tell us about your trip!" Hiram exclaimed.

"Well, I met these girls…"

"Okay, Rachel, your turn to do the dishes," Leroy told her.

"Really? I just got home from _Australia,_ and I have to do the dishes?"

"Consider it as a way to maybe start to reciprocate our kind gesture of paying for you go to _Australia,_" Hiram mimicked her tone. Rachel huffed, and slowly trudged over to the sink. Her fathers stood up, adding their dishes to the pile in the sink and heading to the den. Suddenly, Rachel had an idea. She turned her left hand over, wrist up, and lifted a plate out of the water and into midair. Stretching her right fingers out, she lifted water from the sink, washing the plate. Pleased with herself, Rachel turned to grab the dish soap- dropping the water back into the sink by accident. The water splashed, sending a mini tsunami onto her shirt. Panicking, she put the dish down and raced upstairs, closing her door just before she transformed and dropped onto the bed.

"Rachel, honey? What happened? Are you alright?" Her father called from downstairs.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I spilled water on myself, gonna change my shirt!" She called, sitting up.

"Okay, honey. You do need to finish the dishes, though." he replied, walking away.

Rachel sighed, holding out her hand in a fist. Without a vent in her room, it took five minutes to actually get dry. Walking back downstairs, she slowly steam dried the kitchen floor. Resuming her past position, Rachel put the water down and picked up the soap, squeezing some on and washing it off. Using this method on all the dishes took her about an hour.

Later that night, Rachel lied down on her bed, exhausted. _Maybe this will be more of a problem than I thought._

Puck picked up Rachel for school the next day, since she actually hadn't heard from Finn since his email at the beginning of her trip. The power outage had made it understandable, but, according to Kurt, the power had come back on at their house the previous Monday. He should have at least texted her to ask how she was doing!

Walking into the building, the first thing she saw was last thing she'd expect.

Finn.

Kissing.

Quinn.

An anguished whimper escaped her throat. Ending their PDA, Finn turned around, the grin on his face dropping into confusion.

"Rachel? Why are you here?" He asked, walking towards her.

"What? Why am I here? I go to school here, _Finn_. I came back from my trip, and I see this! You are a despicable human being, Finn Hudson!" She shrieked.

"But you transferred! You decided to stay in Australia and go to school there! Quinn told me!" he explained hastily.

Rachel stared at him, mouth agape. "Why would _Quinn _of all people have the knowledge of any transfers before you, or Kurt, or Noah did? Why would I transfer to Australia? Without my dads? Without even calling you? We didn't even break up, Finn! Even if we did, you rebounded within _two weeks_! How could you be so stupid! We're through!" she sobbed. Puck walked up behind her, shooting Finn his best glare and pulling her out of the hallway.

**A/N: There it is, the end of Finchel. Just to be clear, I do ship Finchel. I just like to write Puckleberry!**

**Over forty reviews! Yay! Thank you guys so much! I love your reviews; they make me want to write more! So I'm having a little contest! Whoever is my fiftieth reviewer gets to have me write any one-shot they want, in glee or H2o 'verse. So go review!**

**Sorry if this chapter is a bit spotty, I write chapters over a long time. **

**Sidenote: I have begun to write another Puckleberry story. I've gotten pretty far on this one, so for I while I could have regular updates without making this story's updates fewer. Should I start posting it?**

**Love you guys, hope you had some amazing holidays!**

**-Gracie**

**(Last P.S. In case you didn't know, I'm now Graciegleek!)**


	14. Moon Pool 3

**Hey guys! I know, I've abandoned this story, but I'm back, and ready to go! I fixed the chapter names, deleted the repeat chapter, and so on. Next time I have a few hours, I'll rewrite the earlier chapters to make more sense.**

**This chapter brings us full circle back to the prolog! Now here's the (real) chapter fourteen!**

Rachel sighed, straightening up in the chair where she had been crying. Puck looked up at her from his phone, where he had been texting the glee club phone tree about Finn's latest act of stupid.

"Why, Noah?" She asked in a small voice.

Puck put his phone away, scooting closer to Rachel and wrapping her in a hug. "I don't know, Rach. He's so stupid, and Quinn took advantage of that. But, you're going to be okay. It'll be okay."

After sitting quietly for a while, Rachel stood up, straightening her skirt and grabbing her backpack.

"I don't want to be late for first period. I'd better go."

"Okay, I'll see you in Glee," Puck told her. She spun on her heel, marching out of the classroom door.

Rachel slammed her locker, resting her head against the cool metal. She had had it with Finn and Quinn. Apparently, he had decided to continue his relationship with her even though she had evilly deceived him. By now, the whole ordeal had made it to the rumor mill and everyone knew about it.

Rachel turned to make her way to lunch, but was greeted by the hockey team, holding…

Slushees.

Great. Rachel glared at them in disgust, before the thought struck her.

Slushees were made of ice.

Ice was made of-

Before she could finish her thought, she was covered in red slushee. Panicking, she ran into the nearest (and, luckily, empty) bathroom, locking the door. The next thing she knew, Rachel had hit her head and was staring at her long, orange tail.

Groaning, Rachel balled her hand into a fist and started to dry herself off.

In the cafeteria, the glee table was abuzz with the news of Finn and Rachel's break up. Finn had actually tried to sit with them, until Artie told him off. Suddenly, Puck showed up, panting heavily.

"Has anyone seen Rachel?" He asked.

"She was slusheed by her locker right before lunch. I tried to help her, but she ran away before I could catch up," Kurt told him. Puck turned pale and cursed before turning around and running out the door.

"Rach? Rachel, I know you're here!" Puck called to the bathroom. It was the only locked bathroom, so he was sure she was there.

"Noah?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, it's me. Open up," He said. The lock clicked, and he opened the door to see mermaid-Rachel on the floor underneath a cloud of steam.

"Are you okay?" He asked, standing on a chair and opening the vent to let the steam out.

"Okay? How could I be okay? My boyfriend cheated on me, I got slusheed, I'm the talk of the school, oh, and did I mention I'm a freaking mermaid?" She said loudly, starting to cry again. During her rant, her fingers had started to glow purple, and the energy had collected into a sphere in her palm.

"Rachel! Shhhh, you're okay. Come on, calm down, calm down!" Puck said, wrapping his arms around her again. She turned and buried her face into his chest, and Puck sighed with relief as the ball of light sputtered out and her fingers returned to normal. Once she had finished crying again, Rachel sat up and continued to dry herself off.

"You almost blew a hole in the wall. We need to figure out a way to keep this thing under control." Puck told her. Rachel took a deep breath and turned to him.

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't know that, if someone figures this out, it would be the end of my life?" She asked. The steam enveloped her, and when it cleared, Rachel was sitting on the floor, back in her blue sweater and white skirt.

"Wait a minute- the shushees didn't stain!" Rachel exclaimed, standing up.

"That's awesome!" Puck agreed.

"That means- I can actually wear my normal clothes now!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Puck asked, confused.

"I only wore the sweaters because of the slushees. I can now go back to wearing what I wore before!" She squealed excitedly.

"About the slushees… I'm sorry, Rach." Puck said, running a hand through his hair and looking down.

"Oh, Noah. I forgave you a long time ago. Now, come on, let's get to lunch," Rachel smiled, grabbing her book bag.

The smile soon left her face when she entered the cafeteria and saw Finn, sitting with Quinn at the jock table. She shook her head and started for the glee table, reminding herself that she couldn't be emotional at school anymore.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I couldn't find my change of clothes, they were under some of my books," She lied smoothly, sitting between Artie and Kurt at the end of the table.

"Oh, Rachel, we're so sorry," Mercedes started, but Rachel cut her off.

"I appreciate your sympathy, but I'd rather not talk about it," she said, starting to eat her salad. After exchanging glances, the rest of the table began a different conversation.

By the end of glee, Rachel was exhausted. She had an emotional day to begin with, and then she had to sit in glee and watch Finn and Quinn be all lovey-dovey. Climbing into Puck's truck, she curled up in the seat and covered herself with her jacket.

"Well, this day sucked." She said as Puck got into the driver's seat.

"Yeah. But Finn sucks, he doesn't deserve you anyway." He said.

"Thanks for saying that, Noah," She yawned sleepily. The next thing she knew, the truck was pulled into her driveway.

"Rach, are your dads home? Their cars aren't here." Puck asked.

"They're just at work Noah, it's fine." Rachel answered quickly.

"You're lying. Where are they?" Puck asked.

"Fine. They're on a business trip. Okay?" Rachel asked, sitting up.

"How long?' Puck asked. When she didn't answer, he grew suspicious.

"How long, Rach?" He asked again.

"A month," She said quietly.

"A month? Are you kidding? That has to be illegal." Puck said, outraged.

"I'm fine, Noah. I'll be fine," She told him.

"Stop saying it's fine! This is not fine. Come stay at my house!" He told her.

"I can't." She answered simply.

"Why not?" He asked, angry.

"In case you haven't noticed, Noah, I'm a mermaid. It's easier for me if I don't have to hide in my own home." Rachel said, crossing her arms.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, can I at least come over and check on you?" He asked.

"If you must. I have to go, Noah, I've got a ton of homework." She said, hopping out of the truck. She walked up to the front door, unlocked it, and waved at him before walking inside.

Once Rachel was alone, she didn't allow herself to cry. She sat at the counter and did all of her homework. When she had finished, Rachel got a quick snack before walking to the neighborhood park. She had a plan.

Rachel jogged quickly past the playground and onto the small path into the woods. She had found the path while running the past summer. She followed it for about half a mile before turning off it and past a few trees. Suddenly, the hidden lake filled her vision. After doing some research, Rachel had found that the forest was a state park that no one really managed because so few people actually lived in Lima to visit it. Apparently, no one actually knew there was a lake.

Not caring that it was March, and that the water temperature was probably freezing, Rachel dove in. She struggled for a moment in her heavy, soaked coat before feeling the now-familiar transformation. Though it was dusk, and the lake was murky to begin with, Rachel could see perfectly. The water was just as clear and blue as it had been at the gold coast. The lake was actually deep, and the sand on the bottom was soft and white. It was almost as though a piece of the Pacific Ocean had been brought to the middle of Ohio.

Rachel swam around more, letting the water went her frustrations away. Even though the lake was small, it seemed as though she could swim forever and never touch the edge.

Suddenly, a faint glow shone through the water. Going against her better judgment, Rachel swam towards it. The light got brighter as she got closer, and soon she had found a large hole in an alcove of rocks that was the source of the light. Something told her to swim further. Rachel swam into the circle. The inside of it was illuminated by the light, and she saw that she was in a sort of rock tunnel, about four feet across. Rachel followed the tunnel for about a minute before it opened into a sort of pool. She had seen it before, somewhere…

Breaking the surface of the pool, Rachel was astonished. The pool was, she realized, very similar to the moon pool. The pool was surrounded by rocks, and around that, by water. Rock walls sheltered the pool on all sides, but the room was more dome-shaped than the pointy volcano at the moon pool. The top of the dome was, once again, cut off, revealing the dark, starry sky. The walls seemed to shimmer, and Rachel felt strangely at home.

Suddenly realizing how late it was, Rachel quickly dived back into the pool, swam out of the tunnel, and back to the rocky ledge where she had jumped in. She pulled herself out, dried herself off, and stood to leave.

Looking back at the lake, Rachel was surprised. The lake seemed so different from itself underwater. The surface of the lake was a dark, murky green color, while the underwater side had seemed to be crystal clear turquoise. The sandy spots hiding behind the rocks were mixed with dirt to become a soggy brown, while the sand at the bottom had seemed pure white. There were spots of algae growing over the surface, when the inside of the lake had seemed free of any mosses. Not having time to stand and look at the lake, Rachel turned and ran back to the path, bringing her thoughts with her.

"You won't believe what I found last night," Rachel said lowly as she sat down at the small table in the deserted corner of the library where she and Puck had taken to spending free period.

"Hello to you too, Berry," Puck said. She glared at him, and he gave up.

"Fine. What did you find?" he asked with feigned interest, not looking up from his comic book.

"So, I went swimming last night, and-"

"Wait, you went swimming? Where?" Puck interrupted.

"This lake at the park. Anyway,-"

"Rachel, there's no lake in the park." He told her, putting away the comic book.

"Yes there is, it's just off the path that goes through the woods." She told him slowly.

"If you say so, I've never seen it. Wait, why were you swimming outside? At night? When it's forty degrees outside?" He said, giving her a strange look.

"I just did, okay? But, you know the moon pool in Australia?" She asked, excited.

"Yeah, the weird volcano thing, what about it?"

"There's one in the lake!" She exclaimed.

"Seriously? I thought there was only one?" Puck asked, confused.

"Well, there's also one in Ireland, where Bella changed. This cave just… It had a magical feel, you know?" She asked.

"Not really. I don't know what 'magic' feels like," Puck laughed.

"Well, then, you'll just have to come with me after school," Rachel commanded.

"I actually don't have plans, thanks for asking. I'll come with you," Puck said sarcastically.

"Good. See you in glee," Rachel said, gathering her book bag and leaving the library.

Mr. Schue walked into the choir room late, as usual. He pulled out a marker, wrote on the board, and turned around.

"Secrets! We all have them. They make for great songs. Pick one, perform one, and then share a secret with the group. It doesn't have to be your deepest fear, or anything. Sharing our secrets will make the group stronger," He said dramatically.

"Do you have an example, Mr. Schue?" Santana called out. The teacher thought for a second.

"I have a secret collection of Rick Astley records in my closet," He said, grinning and putting up his hands as the class groaned.

"Hey! No hate! Get to work!" He called, turning towards his office.

Rachel sighed, looking over at Puck, who was sitting one row down and three seats over from her. He turned towards her, giving his famous smirk. She rolled her eyes and laughed out loud at the irony of the situation.

By the end of glee, Rachel was ready to leave. She hopped in her car and drove to the park, parking and waiting in the driver's seat until Puck's truck pulled up next to her. She got out, locked the door, and led him past the playground and onto the trail.

"I don't remember this trail being here," He said, looking around as Rachel walked determinedly ahead.

"It's been here a while. Come on, it's just up ahead," She said, motioning for him to catch up. After a few more minutes of walking, Rachel turned off the path, weaving in between trees. Finally, she stopped, gesturing towards a large group of boulders surrounding a small puddle. The boulders were tall and sharp, with edges that were too steep to climb.

"What am I looking at, Rach?" Puck asked.

"The lake, silly," She said, smiling.

"There's no lake," He said plainly. She had been less crazy lately, but this was a bit concerning.

"But it's right in front of you," She said, looking confused.

"All I see are a bunch of boulders," Puck told her.  
>"No! Look! She said, marching over to the boulders. He watched, fascinated, as Rachel walked around and up onto the tallest rock.<p>

"Now do you see it?" She called.

"No. Rachel, get down, that looks really dangerous!" He said, walking closer to the boulders.

"Uggh. I can't believe I have to do this. Watch!" Rachel yelled. She turned around and put her arms above her head, gracefully diving into the shallow puddle.

"Rachel!" Puck exclaimed. He climbed up the boulder, and around the other side to avoid the steep cliff Rachel had dove off of. Expecting to see her with broken arms lying in the puddle, Puck panicked when he didn't see anyone. It was almost as though she had vanished in mid air.

"RACHEL?" He called, running back up to the top off the boulder, looking for her. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a splash of water hit him in the face. The whole forest turned blurry, and Puck couldn't see anything. Blinking furiously, he was astonished by what he saw.

The puddle of water had turned into a full-on lake, with a rocky shore. The water was dark, and algae grew on the surface. He was now standing on a flat rock protruding over the water. Rachel was floating in the water below, looking up at him.

"So you can see it now," She stated, smiling.

"What the heck? Secret lake? But it was just- but- I…" He stuttered, looking from her, to the lake, and back to her.

"First of all, help me out," Rachel said, holding out a hand to him. Puck grabbed it, pulling her up and out of the water and onto the cliff. She sat up, dangling her tail off the cliff and starting to steam dry herself. Once she had changed back, Rachel stood up.

"I think we need to tell the other mermaids," she said, walking past him and back to the trail.

Still dumbfounded, Puck followed her out.

**So yay! I'm back! Comment question: should I post my other Puckleberry story? Tell me!**

**Reminder, 50****th**** review gets a one-shot of their choice!**

**See ya later!**

**-Graciegleek**


	15. Ending Author's Note

Hey guys. I'm going to get right to the point here. I'm not continuing this story.

First of all, I'm really sorry to all of you who really enjoyed A Gleeful Tail.

When I started this story almost two years ago, I was really immature, and, if you've read the first few chapters, a horrendous writer. Now, when I read back the chapters, I cringe and wonder what I was doing, where I was going with these plotlines. I simply have no way to continue this story. Though I love Glee and continue to watch it religiously every Thursday at nine, H2O is no longer a show that I enjoy. I will always love it, because it was a huge part of my childhood, but let's be honest: It's a show written for eight year olds, and I am way out of that range.

Thank you to all the writers who helped me start off, gave me advice, and helped me with this story. I wasn't much of a writer when I started, and I know that this story really helped me grow. Just in case you were wondering, I now write and perform spoken word poetry (Slam Poetry) and write my own songs, and I feel like I could never have achieved any of it without this story and all of its readers. So, thank you.

I'll leave it up on this website, but I won't update. If you want to continue this story, or base a story off of it, or use ideas, go right ahead. I would love to read any of your stories.

Once again, thank you for these past two years and I apologize for discontinuing A Gleeful Tail. Thanks a billion to all of you! :)

Lots of love,

Gracie

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